Absolute Zero: The Azure Sky
by James D. Fawkes
Summary: Jiraiya had always thought Nagato was Rikudo Sennin's reincarnation. But what if he wasn't? Nagato inherited the Sage's power and eyes. What does it mean for Naruto to have inherited the Sage's soul? "Soten ni zase...Hyorinmaru."
1. Awaken to Fate

_— "All of water is your weapon. All of Heaven is yours to command."_

**Absolute Zero: The Azure Sky**  
><strong>By<strong>: James D. Fawkes

**Chapter One: Awaken to Fate  
><strong>— **o.0.O.O.0.o —**

Naruto's head gave a powerful throb as he climbed to his unsteady feet with shaking legs. He rubbed gingerly at the pain lancing his temples, "What —?"

The memory rushed to the forefront of his mind in a mixed jumble of images and sounds.

He remembered a grass shinobi, a rather ugly twenty-something girl with long black hair and an even longer tongue. He remembered a snake, a monstrous colossus that could have swallowed the Hokage Tower whole, and broken trees with thick mossy trunks. He remembered stopping that snake with his bare hands and a pair of kunai, and Sasuke and Sakura staring, shocked, awed, afraid, rooted to their spots. He remembered being lifted into the air by that freaky tongue, held in a grip as strong as steel that would not drop him no matter how hard he struggled. He remembered a word — Kyubi. The snake freak had recognized him.

What came next was even more of a blur. He remembered five fingers alight with purple fire, his shirt being yanked up, the wind leaving his lungs. He remembered pain, terrible pain, and a horrifying weakness — his vision going dark, his arms too feeble to lift, his eyes too heavy to stay open, and the cold, bone-numbing fear of encroaching death.

Then...nothing.

His head hurt. Pain — that meant he had to be alive, right?

"Ugh," he groaned softly. He scrunched his face up and shook his head. "What did that snake freak do to me?"

He reached down and pinched the space between his left thumb and forefinger, then rolled the captured flesh — an old remedy for headaches the old man had taught him. He opened his eyes, blinking rapidly, and looked around. First things first: finding out his location. "Where—?"

A vast expanse of pure white snow stretched out before him for miles around, and there was no end in sight — no mountains in the distance, no hazy outline on the horizon, or even a horizon to begin with. There was no clear place where earth met sky, only a blurred transition from white snow to grey clouds. Several trees littered the rolling slopes, reaching up towards the sky and barren but for small white flowers that bloomed timidly. Tiny flakes as soft as silk landed on his skin, melting and dribbling down his face and neck.

He reached out and caught petite white fuzz in his palm. It was snowing, he realized, and when the clouds shifted enough to reveal a quick ray of sun, the thousands of tiny snowflakes shimmered beautifully.

He knew he should be freezing; his jumpsuit was not designed for anything colder than mid-autumn. The snow around him should have been radiating coldness or sucking the heat from his very skin. But he didn't feel cold. In fact, he was oddly comfortable, even — dare he believe it? — _warm_.

He felt his eyes go wide and his mouth fall open and asked the empty air the first question that came to mind: "Where am I?"

The impossibly large trees and roots of the Forest of Death were the last place he remembered being. It had been the second part of the Chunin Selection Exams and he'd been forced to fight against a Hidden Grass ninja too strong to be anything less than a Jounin (and he had a sneaking suspicion that whoever-it-was wasn't supposed to have been there). He had been surrounded by gnarled wood three times its natural size and leaves as big trashcan lids.

But where did that leave him now? What little he could remember about the Academy lessons that seemed a lifetime ago said that the Land of Snow was the only place that _got_ snow. But how would he have gotten to the Land of Snow, hundreds of miles away, across a sea, from the middle of Fire Country?

_'On this plain of never-ending ice and snow,' _he thought in a rare philosophical moment, "did I die?"

"So, you're finally here," a deep voice, like rolling thunder, spoke. Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin and spun around as fast as he could, only to come face to face with a huge blue dragon.

Its scales were smooth and slick and reflected the miniscule light perfectly, which gave them an crystalline shine. Atop its head was a crown of spikes, each of which jutted backwards like shards of broken glass. Its nostrils were thin and narrow, almost serpentine, and its snout was long and canine, like a dog's. Unlike his own puffing pants, its slow, gentle breaths made no clouds in the cold air. Two great, dark-feathered wings were unfurled along its back and its first pair of short, thickly-muscled legs supported it a little farther down. There was a moment, a flash of light through the clouds, and the dragon was, for that single instant, made entirely of ice.

"Tell me: can you hear my name?" the dragon moved closer, and its glowing red eyes bored into his own. "Can you call out to me, to Hyôrinmaru?"

"Is that you?" Naruto asked, his voice low and quavering with fear and awe. His eyes were wide and his breathing came out in shaky rasps. His heart thumped loudly, beating a tattoo against his ribs. "Are you Hyôrinmaru?"

The dragon bared two rows of shiny carnivorous teeth in a frightening parody of a satisfied grin, "So, you _can_ hear."

A burst of warm breath came from its nostrils, "After years of having your ears plugged by the Nine-tailed Fox, you can finally hear me. It's been _so long_..."

"The fox?" Naruto parroted. His features quickly contorted into rage. Something horrible twisted in his stomach. The creature that stole his parents and his childhood from him. "What does _he_ have to do with anything?"

"Do not be so quick to hate, child," a second, much stronger burst of breath came, knocking Naruto off his feet. He fell on his butt with a soft grunt. "If it were not for that beast, you would likely have failed to survive your rough childhood. He may have blocked me from you, but he did keep you alive, even if it was more for his own self-interest."

"What?" Naruto's eyebrows shot up into his hitai-ate. The sick feeling in his gut morphed into a swift thrill of shock. "But how?"

"He protected you when I could not," the dragon responded calmly. "He healed you when others would have waned away into nothing. He soothed you when sleep would not come to your young mind."

"But that was all _his _fault to begin with!" Naruto protested loudly. The anger was back, bitter and furious. "If he hadn't attacked Konoha, then he wouldn't have gotten his fuzzy butt sealed, and I would have had a normal life!"

And he would have had parents. A mom and a dad. People who loved him for who he was, unconditionally, who would have tucked him in at night, whispered sweet nothings in his ear, comforted him after a nightmare. He might have even had a younger brother or sister. A _family_.

"Do not be so quick to judge," Hyôrinmaru purred. "The fault of the Nine-tails' attack lies in the accursed blood of the Uchiha. The one called Madara…"

The dragon's eyes flashed, "Were it not for him, the beast would not be where he is. And you…you would have a family."

Naruto was sure his confusion must have shown on his face, "What does the Uchiha clan—?"

"That, I cannot answer," the serpentine beast interrupted; it had anticipated his question. Naruto had the feeling that Hyôrinmaru was not being honest with him. "I only know what information I can glean from the beast and his mutterings."

"Oh," Naruto said lamely. He glanced around, somewhat unnerved by the dragon's unblinking stare. He didn't want to ask what Hyôrinmaru wasn't saying. "So…what are you?"

There was huff from the creature in front of him, almost like an amused chuckle, but Naruto dared not imagine he was right. The dragon's tone, however, was serious when it responded, "I am the piece of your soul dedicated to fighting. I am the part of you that never gives up, even when your body is frail and defeated."

There was something powerful in the beast's voice as it continued, its pitch rising, "I am the Wrath of Heaven, the instrument with which you slay your foes. I am the lord of ice and snow, the master of all things water! I am the frigid bite of death! I am your sword and your shield, and I shall protect you until the bitter end!" — its voice rose to a roar — "I am HYÔRINMARU!"

It bowed its head submissively, startling Naruto with the foreign gesture, "Now command me, and _raze your enemies to the ground_!"

A sudden feeling of power rushed through his body, and he felt like he could do anything, beat anyone, and overcome any obstacle. It was like molten lava flowing through his veins, and with nothing but confidence, he reached out to touch the spiked crown of Hyôrinmaru's head.

The strange world disappeared in a flash of bright light.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto's eyes snapped open with a gasp, but he shut them immediately against the dim light that burned them like the midday sun. He turned over to his side and curled into a ball. It felt as though someone had slammed a sledgehammer into his stomach, as though a cannonball had knocked the air from him with the force of a freight train. He felt sure that he must be bruised black and blue.

"….Ha!" there was a loud thud, and Naruto thought briefly of a large, perfectly cooked steak being dropped unceremoniously onto a plate. Sakura's voice cried out in answer. A vicious crack rent the air, like that of bones breaking, shattered by the blunt, unforgiving earth. Naruto's mind felt hazy, like someone had stuffed his head full of cotton or like fog had filled up every nook and cranny of his skull.

'_Ugh. What's going on?'_

"Kin, out of the way!" the words were thick and distorted, like they were tiny little soldiers trudging through a sea of molasses. The wind leapt to life, washing over his body like a gentle wave, a cool breeze that caressed his burning forehead. There were three sharp clunks and a soft explosion sound, one that Naruto recognized as Kawarimi. There was a battle…?

'_I-ta-ta-ta-ta! Nng, did someone get the number of that kart that ran me over?'_ His head ached just as much as it had before, in that strange world. It was like someone had taken a drill to his skull and made several holes. Every beat of his heart sent spikes of pain lancing along every nerve in his scalp. He let out a soft hiss through his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

"…useless!" Another blast of wind, closer, much closer, than before, showered him harshly and whipped his exposed fingers raw. His ears twitched at the dark scoff that followed.

'_Quiet! You're not helping!'_

"…you're not fooling anyone!" Three more thunks, then another explosion — Kawarimi again. There was definitely a battle going on, and he really shouldn't be lying around when someone was fighting on his doorstep, but he couldn't muster the strength to care. He was in too much pain.

'_Damn it! What I wouldn't give to know some Medical Ninjutsu right about now!'_

"...get serious!" another thud, heavier than any of the others before it, was followed by a gasp of surprise and the smell of fresh blood — someone was wounded. A girl cried out in pain, muffled, like she was gagged or something, then several meaty whacks as someone hit something repeatedly. Then there was another thud as something or someone was thrown bodily to the ground.

Wait a minute. That girl's voice — he recognized it.

'_Sakura!'_

His eyes snapped open and a cool, soothing relief swept through his body and eased away his pains.

He stood in one fluid motion, his fingers wrapping around the hilt of a sword, one that he'd never even seen before, that sent a satisfied rush through his veins. Everyone and everything halted before him as he turned a frigid stare out at the forest around him. His iron grip on his sword tightened.

"Naru…to," Sakura whispered dully from her spot on the ground; one eye was already bruised and swelling shut. There were several cuts along her arms and legs and small patches of blood were beginning to pool beneath her. She looked surprised to see him, like he was some phantom specter back from the dead. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the broken and defeated form of Lee lying unconscious on the ground.

"Heh," the ninja with spiky black hair grinned smugly. "So, one of those sleeping brats woke up, eh?"

Naruto focused his icy gaze on the Sound Genin. Words tumbled past his lips before he knew what he was saying, "Sôten ni zase, Hyôrinmaru." (Sit upon the Frozen Heavens, Ice Ring)

The sword in his hand glowed bright blue, sprouting from its pommel a chain on whose end was a white steel crescent, and the spiky haired Genin smirked, a cocky gleam in his eye. He scoffed, "That's it? What, nothing else? Am I supposed to be frightened of a little genin with a sword?"

"Zaku!" the bandaged one scolded. There was something antsy and agitated in his stiffened posture.

Naruto _moved_, and in a blur, he was standing behind the spiky-haired Zaku, already in mid swing. Startled, Zaku stumbled backwards awkwardly and landed on his butt as a flash of steel flickered over his head and severed several locks of black hair. Zaku stared. A swell of pride swirled in Naruto's chest; he felt invincible.

It was like that final moment in his inner world, where he had laid his hand upon Hyôrinmaru's spiked crown and felt the liquid courage surging through his body. Like then, he felt as though no obstacle could stand in his way, as though he were untouchable. The sword felt so familiar in his hand, and every motion felt practiced to perfection, even though he had never wielded a katana before in his life.

Instantly, Naruto was upon Zaku again, both hands grasping the hilt as his blade came down in a surprisingly graceful arc. Zaku yelped, rolling backward over his shoulder only to land straight on his feet, crouched defensively. He looked like a frightened animal too scared to move. It seemed that he could not decide whether to fight or flee. Something in Naruto crowed triumphantly, and it evoked in Naruto the urge to show the upstart in front of him its place. _Bow before the ultimate predator, whelp,_ it seemed to say.

Naruto moved to continue his assault and Zaku leapt as far away as he could on chakra-enhanced legs, already preparing his own attack. To Naruto, he seemed to be moving in slow motion. He flung his hands out and the tubes in his arms whistled as air compressed inside them. "Zankuuha!"

A gale of tightly packed wind rushed from Zaku's palms, targeting Naruto, who had not moved and whose icy gaze had not wavered. The triumphant grin that stretched across Zaku's face made Naruto want to deck him. He'd show that punk what it meant to underestimate him.

Naruto funneled chakra to his legs (and it was so incredibly _effortless_) and leapt upwards, the wind whistling in his ears as the figures beneath him grew smaller. He slowed to a stop, and there was a moment as he hung there in midair, feeling completely and utterly free, where his body was untouched by gravity. Then, as he started to fall, he swung downwards and called, "Hyôrinmaru!"

From the arc of the blade, a winding, icy blue serpentine dragon soared, its eyes red and its jaw wide. It was headed straight for Zaku and the expression on his face belied the surprise that seemed to have frozen him to his spot.

"Zaku!" at the last second, Dosu called out his name and Zaku finally responded, vaulting from his spot as the sapphire beast closed in on him. He was not fast enough, however, to avoid it entirely, and his left arm was consumed. Behind him, as his female teammate gave a gasp, the dragon crashed into the ground, forming an almost flower-shaped pillar of jagged ice as the surrounding grass froze into miniature spikes.

Naruto landed next to Zaku softly, marveling at how _easy _it all seemed as he stalked forward. Zaku looked frightened, and the terror radiating off of him only made Naruto's cold rage more ferocious. The predator had become the prey, and only _now _did it think of mercy?

Every inch closer he got, the Sound girl took in a harsher, more strangled breath. Zaku's left arm was entirely encased in ice, but that did not stop him from flinging out his good arm and calling, "Zankuuha!"

With a flick of his wrist, Naruto conjured a wall of ice that deflected the attack effortlessly — the wall wasn't even dented. Then, Naruto vanished. He disappeared, and as he moved, the world around him seemed to have frozen. With a single hand, he swung, and then he stopped, sword outstretched. A line carved itself up Zaku's already injured right arm, then gave a spurt of blood. Zaku cried out in pain — in the span of a few moments, both of his arms had been rendered useless. One was frozen solid, slowly going numb, and the other had nearly been cut in half.

'_Serves him right,'_ Naruto thought viciously. His eyebrow twitched, then he spun on his heel, blocking the attack from Zaku's male teammate, Dosu. Metal clashed and sparks flew. Dosu's gauntlet pushed against Hyôrinmaru, and neither of them gave a single inch.

Ice crept from the shallow groove Naruto's sword had carved, slowly consuming Dosu's arm in a heavy layer of crystallized water. Dosu's one eye went wide, and he tried to get away, but Naruto's left hand shot out and locked his elbow in a grasp as strong as steel. He wriggled desperately, trying to tug himself free, but Naruto's grip was firm and unwavering.

Once the gauntlet was completely frozen over, Naruto let go of Dosu and brought his sword up as his enemy stumbled. With all of his strength, he slammed the butt of his sword's hilt into the metal glove, smashing it to pieces mercilessly.

Dosu yowled and fell backwards, clutching at his severely injured right arm. Several scratches decorated the lacerated skin and Naruto could not tell whether or not he had broken the bones, but he vindictively hoped that he had. Payback for hurting Sakura, he reasoned, with plenty of interest.

As he stood there and the heady feeling of power began to drain, Naruto considered his options. He thought only for an instant of killing them, but had no sooner considered it than rejected it violently. His stomach threatened to rebel, and it was only the icy rage that was slowly thawing that allowed him to maintain the furious scowl and frigid expression on his face.

He could not, however, simply allow them to walk away and lick their wounds.

"Leave your scroll and go," he told Dosu evenly. He watched as Dosu's head snapped back up to look at him, his one visible eye impossibly wide. He had been expecting, Naruto imagined, to have both his life and the lives of his teammates forfeited. That did not help the queasy feeling in Naruto's stomach.

"Leave your scroll and go," Naruto repeated coldly, hoping that he did not have to repeat himself a second time. He needed for his stomach to settle a moment before he dared speak too much. Fortunately, Dosu nodded dumbly. With his good arm, he reached into his kunai pouch and pulled out a scroll decorated with the kanji for earth. Setting it down slowly, he motioned to his teammates silently. They left without another word.

As soon as the team of Sound Genin had vanished, Naruto picked up the scroll and turned to show it off. He grinned and displayed it proudly, "Look, Sakura-san! I got us a scroll!"

Naruto did not bother to realize he had used –_san_ instead of –_chan_, nor even that Sakura did not respond to him. She simply blinked and sat up. A part of him recognized, however, that Sakura was unsure what to make of him, and that startling realization shot a jolt of something unidentifiable through his stomach.

She was looking at his sword with a measure of confusion, and that jolt became a quick thrill of nervousness. She must be wondering where he had gotten it, and that thrill of nervousness evolved into full-blown butterflies as he realized that he didn't have any explanation. He had no way to explain the beautiful sword in his hand, oddly easy and comfortable in his hand despite that it was nearly as long as he was tall. He had no way to explain where he had gotten a magnificent dai-katana with a hilt wrapped in azure and a pommel and star-shaped guard made of what seemed to be antiqued gold.

He had no way to explain the sword with the long, silvery blade and glass-like shine, a deadly weapon with a razor-sharp edge, clearly very expensive. He could not remember seeing a blade of such quality in his life, not even the legendary Kubikiri Houcho once wielded by Momochi Zabuza.

That sword, where had Naruto gotten it? That must be what Sakura was asking herself. That was what several people, including probably the Hokage himself, would ask when they saw him with it.

Even more pressing was what he had done with it. A high-quality sword he could have claimed he found in the Forest; he could say that he'd taken from a dead team or from a team he had defeated. But a sword that could do all the things he'd done with it? No ordinary Genin would be entrusted with such a thing; they were trainees, beginners with no real idea what they were doing. Not only would they not have the money for such an expensive weapon, but no one would dare give something so valuable to a mere Genin.

On the off chance he managed to convince everyone that he'd saved up and bought it with his own money, how would he explain _where_ he had gotten it? Anyone who was suspicious of his story, and there would surely be a number of people, need only check the blacksmiths and weapon stores to discover that none of them had made it or sold it.

And even if no one realized that he couldn't have bought it, how would he explain what he'd done with it? How would he explain the dragon of liquid ice? How would he explain the abilities he had shown with it? Even if people believed that it was an ordinary chakra blade capable of channeling jutsu and chakra, how would he explain where he'd learned techniques (especially one that could be mistaken for such a high-level jutsu as Suiryuudan)?

The answer was simple: he couldn't.

Panic shot outwards from his belly, and his brain conjured up a number of possible scenarios for what he imagined was inevitable. He saw himself, tied up in a basement somewhere, beaten and bloody as the ANBU interrogated him for answers, asking where Uzumaki Naruto was and growing ever angrier as he insisted tearfully that he _was_ Uzumaki Naruto. He imagined his body, cold and pale, lying on a table as a man approached with a small, thin knife and slowly pushed the blade into his bloodless skin. He imagined himself strapped to a bed as dozens of faceless men in white poked him with needles and took blood and pieces of his skin day in and day out, unable to move and fed through tubes in his arms.

Naruto nearly started crying. He didn't want to become a science experiment. What could he possibly tell them that could save his life?

A wave of comfort, sort of like an invisible hug that reached all the way to his heart, washed through him and he was suddenly calm.

"_Tell them the truth,"_ Hyôrinmaru said soothingly. _"Truth is stranger than fiction. Tell your friends the truth, and let them keep your secret."_

Naruto relaxed and absentmindedly sheathed his sword. Yes, he realized. That might work. Teamwork, like Kakashi-sensei was always going on about. Tell the people he trusted the truth and let everyone else scratch their heads.

"Hey!" Naruto looked over as a girl jumped down from the trees, her brown hair tied up in two buns on the top of her head. Her white-eyed teammate frowned. "That's a nice sword you have."

"Yeah," Naruto chuckled. "He's great, ain't he?"

"I'll say," she whistled. "The hilt is amazing in and of itself, but the blade! I've never seen something of this quality before! It's a work of art! That MUST be a family heirloom or something!"

She giggled a little hysterically, "So, 'he'?"

"Yeah," Naruto grinned. "His name's Hyôrinmaru. He's the best sword you'll ever see!"

"I can see that," she too grinned, "and his owner isn't anything to sneeze at either — in a few years, you'll be beating them off with sticks. I've seen quite a few blades, but this one is something else. I knew you could do it with chakra, but I didn't know it was possible to channel Jutsu through weapons like that! Even the White Fang's sword couldn't manage something so advanced!"

Her eyes roved hungrily over the hilt (he wondered if that's what he looked like when ramen was mentioned), taking in its splendor, "So, did your Jônin sensei teach you that?"

Naruto blinked, cocking his head to the side, "Teach me what?"

Her eyebrow twitched, as though it would like very much to arch itself, "You know, that…_dragon_ thing."

He looked her oddly. She motioned with her arms as if swinging a sword, saying, "Where you just swing and this dragon comes out and attacks your enemies?"

"Oh that," recognition sputtered to life in Naruto's brain. "That's Hyôrinmaru."

"But…I thought Hyôrinmaru was the sword," she stated lamely. Her lips were pulled into a confused frown that was, he had to admit, kind of cute.

"He's both," Naruto told her matter-of-factly. "He's the dragon and the sword."

"But…that means…"she started, scrunching her face up as she put together the implications that statement brought. He thought that looked kind of cute, too. Man, what had he been missing out on? Had he been so focused on Sakura that he hadn't notice how pretty some of the other girls could be? "You have a dragon sealed inside of that sword?"

"Something like that," Naruto admitted sheepishly. Truth be told, he wasn't sure himself. All he knew was that Hyôrinmaru was both his sword and the dragon, and so long as that didn't interfere with anything, he was going to leave well enough alone. As long as it worked, he didn't care about the _how_. Hyôrinmaru was Hyôrinmaru, and that was all that mattered.

She opened her mouth and closed it several times, but nothing came out. He suddenly realized that he'd told her the secret he'd decided to tell only to those he trusted, and his insides turned cold, but he kept the smile and hoped that she didn't question it. If she didn't, if she left it alone and let it be, then maybe, just maybe, he could trust her.

Finally, she decided upon an excited grin, giggling girlishly. She turned to leave, throwing a wave over her shoulder, "You're an interesting guy! So let's meet again, Naruto-san! Don't lose, okay?"

Leaping into the trees, she and her team disappeared into the Forest.

Naruto couldn't help the grin that threatened to split his face. That girl was quite an interesting one. She was kind of strange, he had to admit, because it wasn't everyday you found a girl so obsessed with weapons. He didn't really care, though, because she was interested in him as a person and that made her okay in his book. (Though a part of him wondered if she wasn't more interested in his sword. He crossed his fingers and hoped she wouldn't blab his secret.)

That teammate of hers, though, Neji, was someone that Naruto figured he better watch out for. Lee had told him that Neji was the strongest Genin in the entire village of Konoha, and Lee himself had easily beaten Naruto. If Neji was even stronger than Lee, that meant that Naruto would definitely have to keep an eye on the Taijutsu prodigy, Hyuga Neji.

His thoughts were interrupted by Sakura's excited cry of, "Sasuke-kun!"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

"Thanks for the save earlier, Kabuto!" Naruto called, grinning. Neither the pain in his stomach nor the powerful headache had reappeared, he had noticed as they leapt through the trees. His chakra control had gone to the dogs, though, so it was a bit difficult not to accidentally destroy the branches beneath his feet as he leapt onwards.

It was by an incredible stroke of luck that Kabuto had shown up at their camp, just in time to stop Naruto and Sasuke from opening the Earth scroll they had gotten from the Sound team. If they had, he had revealed, they would have been immediately disqualified and forced to stop their participation in the Exams.

"It wasn't a problem, Naruto-kun," Kabuto called back, smiling.

"Are you sure there are still other teams left in the forest?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, I'm positive," Kabuto answered. "You just need to give it a little thought. In a jungle battle or in an open forest, like this, do you know the cleverest way to fight? The goal of the examinees is the tower at the center of the forest, which means that, on the last day, the easiest place to get a scroll is in the area around that tower."

"Oh, I get it!" Sakura said, realization painting across her face. "That means we're going to go after the teams that have both scrolls and are heading for the tower."

"That's only partly correct," Kabuto admonished gently.

"What?"

"Because you're not the only one thinking that," he explained. "Teams with the same idea will have set traps around the tower."

"All right," Naruto grinned. "That means there'll be a lot of enemies sitting there waiting for us, right? All we have to do is beat them up and grab a Heaven scroll, and we'll be home free!"

"Nope, that's still not completely right," Kabuto said. Naruto nearly missed his next landing. "We have to think of the collectors who appear in exams like this. Even really close to the tower, you're still not safe. Collectors will take as many extra scrolls as they can, so they can surrender one if they face an enemy they can't beat or give one to their comrades from the same village. Or they might even exchange it for information about getting through the remaining exams easier. As you've probably figured out, these are the tough guys looking to eliminate the competition for the next round."

"I see," Sasuke said smugly. "Now I understand why you decided to come with us. You're scared of these guys, aren't you?"

Kabuto blinked, then smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, I guess so."

It was only hours later that they stood in front of the tower, but night had already fallen with all of its distant sounds. Somewhere, an owl hooted and crickets chirped incessantly. A wolf howled at the moon, bright and full, which had risen into the sky, casting an eerie gray light down upon the trees and the tower.

The closer they got to the tower, the smaller the trees seemed to become (though they were still quite massive), so Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, with Kabuto leading them, stopped on one of the taller trees, looking out over the much smaller trees towards their goal. They were close — even if they walked, it was only a few hours away, half a day at most.

"And there's the tower," Kabuto said calmly. He adjusted his glasses. "This is where things get serious." He turned to Team Seven, frowning and solemn. "From here on out, we should limit the amount of noise we make. If we go forward too loudly, all of those enemies we want to avoid will give us a very passionate welcome."

Sasuke smirked, Sakura nodded, and Naruto gave him a grin and a thumbs-up. Turning back forward, he knelt down and fished a small metal box out of his utility pouch, flipping it open casually. He held the box level with his right eye and closed the left, peering through the slot the box's lid and calculating something. Naruto thought that Kabuto must be a pretty smart guy to do that really complicated math all in his head.

"All right," he said, standing and snapping his box shut. He dropped it unceremoniously back into his utility pouch. "This is fine. We'll keep heading in this direction."

And they were off again, dropping down to the grass as they reached the smaller trees and proceeding cautiously, every sense thrumming and humming with tension. They were like taut bow strings — even the slightest new sound or movement sent them vibrating and fingering their weapons.

It became obvious as they continued that they were not the first team to have walked that path — they spotted several traps, a number of which had already been sprung…and still held their victims. More than once, Naruto had grimaced as his stomach threatened to revolt and thanked whoever upstairs was listening for the fact that the darkness made it difficult to see the expressions of eternal agony carved onto the faces of the dead.

As they went on, however, Naruto noticed a faint prickling in the back of his neck — the fine hairs there were standing on end and there was an almost warning tingle at the base of his skull. He paid it no mind, figuring it was probably the tension, and continued onwards. Behind him, Sakura collapsed to her knees.

"I can't go on," she panted. "No matter how far we go, the tower never seems to get any closer. It's so weird. It's like its right in front of us."

"You're right," Sasuke murmured suspiciously.

"It seems that we've already fallen prey to someone's 'passionate welcome'," Kabuto said with a frown. He pointed at a team of trap victims — a team that looked eerily familiar, Naruto realized. "See? We've passed them at least three times, now."

"No way!" Sakura whispered.

"Genjutsu," Sasuke confirmed.

"So it seems," Kabuto agreed. "They had us all fooled and very carefully tricked us into walking in circles."

"We're being watched."

"They probably wanted us to waste our strength so they could ambush us when we tired out."

"Then we're already playing into their hands," Sasuke mused stoically.

Kabuto cast his eyes around, adjusting his glasses absently, "And we could be attacked at any moment."

No sooner had he spoken those words than did they appear — dozens of identical figures, all pulling themselves out of branches or up from the grass, melting out of a tree, body half-fused with the bark. They were all the same and all approached sluggishly, slumped over and slouched, looking at Team Seven plus one with blank, soulless eyes. Each wore also the headband of the Rain village, with four vertical slashes down the metal plate that protected their forehead.

"They're here," Sasuke declared simply.

Naruto grinned and reached up, freeing Hyôrinmaru effortlessly. The sheath evaporated into a thick, frosty vapor, "En masse, eh? This'll make for a fun handicap."

"There's so many," Sakura whispered worriedly.

"And they're all Bunshin," Kabuto added.

One of the enemies chuckled through his mask, "Like a mouse in a trap."

"I'll show you 'mouse'!" Naruto shouted, lifting his sword. "Sôten ni zase, Hyôrinmaru!"

The sword lengthened and the chain and crescent dangled down to the ground. Naruto swung, curving it horizontally at his waist, "Hyôryû Senbi!" (Ice Dragon Swirling Tail)

A wave of water formed along the arc of his blade, washing over several of the Bunshin, then flash froze into a spiked crescent of ice, slanted outwards. A number of the doppelgangers were consumed in the ice and frozen solid, but those who had been skewered or sliced instead grew appendages, sometimes a whole second torso, head, and pair of arms, and stood back up.

Naruto took a step back, horror etched across his face, "What the—?"

The horror quickly contorted into rage, "Yeah? Then take this!" He swung again. "Hyôrinmaru!"

A dragon leapt from his blade, soaring forward and catching several Bunshin at once, driving them back and into a tree, splashing and tearing away the bark. Naruto swept his sword upwards, "Zekku!" (Severing Void)

The torrent of water leapt upward and cut clear through the tree, splitting it in half height-wise before freezing into a vertical crescent. The clones that were caught did not break free and melted into a brown goop.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura's voice cried.

Naruto looked back to see Sasuke rigid and motionless on the ground, Kabuto's body thrown protectively overtop him. Kabuto himself had been injured — there was a nasty-looking, if rather shallow, gash on his left arm, and the kunai that had done it was embedded in the grass a little ways away. Naruto looked back to the clones in front of him and brandished Hyôrinmaru defensively.

"So, wait a minute," he said. "If Kabuto got hurt, does that mean that they're Kage Bunshin with real flesh? But-but Kage Bunshin disappear if you get a good hit in! They don't! That means they're illusions, right? Damn it, which is it?"

"They're not real, Naruto!" Sasuke said, sitting up. He was clutching oddly at his shoulder. "They're illusions!"

"But Kabuto-san's wound is real!" Sakura protested.

"No, Sasuke-kun's right," Kabuto said, standing straight. He rubbed at the cut on his arm tenderly. "The real enemy is hiding somewhere, using these clones to mask their own attacks. It gives the illusion that the Bunshin are the ones attacking us."

"Then I'll find the real ones and beat them up!" Naruto declared angrily. It was that simple. The Bunshin didn't matter.

"Wait a moment, Naruto-kun," Kabuto said. "That's the whole point. We don't know where the real ninja are. With guys like these, who aren't that great at ninjutsu or taijutsu, they prefer to attack with genjutsu like this from the safety of their hiding spot. They won't show themselves until we can't move anymore at all. The only thing we can do now…is dodge."

Naruto snarled. He couldn't accept that. Not when he had all this new power — what was it good for if it couldn't help him win?

"Screw that!" he said furiously, rearing back his arm. Water swirled around the blade of his sword, snakelike. "I'm leveling this place! See if they can hide without any trees!"

A look of realization and a little bit of horror dawned on Sasuke's face. Naruto saw it out of the corner of his eye, and it gave him such an incredible feeling of power.

"Shit!" he cursed. He grabbed Sakura by the shoulder and Kabuto by the arm and pulled them to the ground. "Get down!"

"Hyôrinmaru!"

Naruto spun on his heel, swinging himself and his sword in a complete circle. A torrent of water, as much liquid ice as anything else, gushed outward from the tip, slicing the surrounding trees and brush clear off their trunks and washing them away with all the power of a waterfall.

As powerful as it looked, it sounded just as much so. The water roared as it flooded outwards, clamoring and pounding like the white rapids just before a waterfall. The trees rooted strong enough not to be swept away gave loud, ominous cracks before they split, leaving behind only a mangled trunk and half-upturned roots. There were three panicked screams — then quiet.

When everything had stilled, Naruto saw Sasuke, Sakura, and Kabuto lift their heads to look around — and they promptly let out a collective gasp. They were in a big circle of clear, dry land, maybe twelve feet in diameter at the most, but outside of it was layer upon layer, wave upon wave, of frozen water, jutting out from the center in jagged spikes. Those trees that had not been completely washed away were impaled viciously (none of them wanted to imagine a human's fate on the business end of those spikes), and there was no sign of the three Rain ninja.

Naruto, panting, sank to one knee, using his sword (which had returned to normal) as a crutch.

"And that," he said breathlessly, "is why you don't screw with Uzumaki Naruto!"

"I-I think you overdid it, Naruto-kun," Kabuto said shakily as he pulled himself to his feet. "I-I mean, the clones are gone, b-but where are the real ninja? Without them, you can't get the scroll you need."

"Right here!" a second Naruto dropped the three Rain ninja unceremoniously on the ground — they were unconscious. "And, lookie, lookie!" Grinning, the second Naruto reached into its utility pouch and held out a white scroll. "The Heaven scroll!"

Sakura was suddenly on her feet, her face screwed up in a furious scowl, and stomping angrily over in the clone's direction. The Kage Bunshin didn't know what to do, cringing away from her as she got close, and threw its arms up to protect its face. Sakura didn't bother with its head and punched it mercilessly in its unguarded stomach. The Kage Bunshin vanished with a poof and Sakura caught the scroll effortlessly.

The real Naruto let out a breath, like he'd just been on the receiving end of a punch to the gut, and shouted indignantly, "Hey, that hurt!"

"Well, it should!" Sakura yelled back without bothering to realize that she'd punched a clone, not the original. "You deserved it! That was the most incredibly reckless thing you've ever done, and considering the whole fiasco with Zabuza, that's saying something!"

"Well, at least I did something!" Naruto retorted. "If I hadn't done that when I did, we probably would've been stuck her 'til next year!"

"Oh, so that gives you the right to almost KILL your teammates? Do you realize how close you came to hitting one of us with that spark of brilliance? You could've taken my head off! You could've cut Sasuke-kun!"

Naruto snarled. "Cause Rikudô forbid if Sasuke were to ever break a nail!"

He affected a falsetto voice. "'Oh, no, Sasuke-kun! You've got a smudge of dirt on your nose! The world is ending! The sky is falling! Oh no!'"

"This isn't about Sasuke-kun! This is about how you almost—!"

Naruto wished at that moment that things had not gone back to normal, and that Sakura was still staring at him like she didn't know what to make of him. At least then, it would have been quiet.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

"I say we open the scrolls," Naruto said, injecting his opinion. After roughly three hours of nonstop running, Team Seven had finally parted ways with Kabuto and made it to the tower…where they promptly got into a fight about what to do.

"Idiot!" Sakura punched Naruto over the head, a vein popping out on her brow. "Anko-san said _not_ to open the scrolls! We'd get disqualified!"

"She was talking about before we got to the tower!" Naruto shouted back, rubbing the bump forming on his cranium. "I'm the one who got us both our scrolls! If it wasn't for me, we'd still be out there!"

"I don't care!" Sakura fumed, glaring at him. "I'm not about to let you and your stupidity get Sasuke-kun disqualified from the Chûnin Exams!"

"It's logic!" Naruto argued angrily. "We're in the tower with no one to greet us! The only explanation is that the scrolls have something to do with our qualification into the next part of the Exams!"

"Since when do you know anything about logic?" Sakura demanded rhetorically. "I'm not going to let you take any chances! This is one of the most important milestones in Sasuke-kun's life! _You're_ not going to mess that up!"

"Jeez!" Naruto flung his hands up in exasperation and rolled his eyes. "For the smartest girl in the Academy you sure are pretty dumb!"

"What did you say?" Sakura's voice rose. "I dare you to say that to my face!"

"I said," Naruto yelled back, "YOU'RE DUMB!"

"Come here, you little—!" Sakura reached for his neck. Her fingers were twitching as though she would like nothing more than the wring the very life from him.

"Hey, guys," both of them froze as Sasuke looked at them with his serious face. Naruto thought it made him look constipated. "I think we should open the scrolls."

Naruto palmed his face as Sakura squealed and crooned about how right her Sasuke-kun was, and about how he always had the best ideas. Even after the mess with the three Sound ninja, she was still Sasuke's little cheerleader.

"Ugh," he muttered to himself. "Why did I even like her, anyway?"

He jerked his thoughts to a halt. Did? Why was he using the past tense? He liked Sakura, didn't he? As in, still does? Always has?

No, he realized. His stomach gave a funny jolt. He _didn't_ like Sakura anymore. His heart, which used to flutter excitedly every time he greeted her, had been calm every morning since the one-sided battle with those Sound freaks. His belly, which had done flip-flops at the sight of her smile, had been calm for just as long. Every reaction his body had had to her since he had started crushing on her had just stopped. The realization sputtered to life in his brain.

He didn't like Sakura anymore.

His lungs suddenly constricted and forced the air from his chest. Every muscle in his body seized abruptly and froze, and his eyes grew impossibly wide as his mouth formed into a small, puckered, 'oh.' His heart skipped a whole two beats.

He didn't like Sakura anymore.

A tentative, nervous excitement built up in his gut, slowly branching out and feeding adrenaline to his arms and legs, then up his neck and into his head. He suddenly felt…free. Free, like he'd been imprisoned in the dark for years and was suddenly being let out into the sun. He felt absolutely liberated.

He didn't like Sakura anymore.

"Come on, baka!" Sakura pulled him from his thoughts by the sleeve of his jacket, shoving the Heaven scroll into his stomach forcefully. "Help me open the scrolls."

Grudgingly peeling open the scroll given to him, he stared at its contents. Several characters were written down, focused around single kanji in the center. Naruto blinked, "'Jin'?"

As soon as the word left his lips, the scrolls began to smoke and sizzle in their hands. Naruto nearly dropped it as Sasuke spoke again, his tone urgent, "Naruto, Sakura, throw the scrolls away!"

Trusting the Uchiha to know what he was talking about (though Naruto would never admit it aloud), his teammates hurled the scrolls at the floor several feet away, watching as the smoke rose to an apex and exploded outwards. As the smoke began to clear, however, a shape could be seen within the dispersing cloud. Team Seven tensed, prepared to fight whatever had appeared from their scrolls.

Naruto blinked in surprise, then grinned, "Iruka-sensei!"

True enough, the smog dissipated, revealing their trusted Academy teacher, Umino Iruka. He grinned at them and gave them a friendly wave, "Hey, guys. It's been a while, huh?"

He looked them all over, and his eyes halted at each scratch, scrape, and bump. "Looks like you guys have been through the meat grinder."

Sakura stared, confused, "Iruka-sensei…what just happened?"

"Oh, well," Iruka rubbed the back of his neck, "the summoning spell on the scrolls was designed to let us Chûnin greet the applicants at the end of the second exam. It's just luck that I was the one who wound up meeting you three. Congratulations! You all pass the second exam!"

Naruto grinned broadly and thumbed his nose, but didn't do anything else. Iruka blinked, but didn't comment on the fact that Naruto wasn't bouncing around the room. Naruto was just being patient; soon enough, he'd drag Iruka off to Ichiraku's for ramen.

"If we had sneaked a peek at the scrolls before the exam was over," Sasuke started, "what would you have done, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka scratched his temple with his index finger, "Sharp as ever, huh, Sasuke?"

He shrugged, "Our orders were very specific. Anyone who opened a scroll too soon was to be knocked out until the end of the second exam."

Sakura rolled her eyes heavenward and wiped her brow in relief. Her gaze flickered back to the poster on the wall, which they had observed briefly before the earlier fight had broken out. If there was one thing Naruto had to admire about her, even now, it was the speed at which her mind seemed to work, and how it latched onto a subject so thoroughly and refused to let go until it was satisfied.

"Sensei," she said, "what does that text on the wall mean? It's incomplete, so I don't get it."

Iruka glanced over his shoulder at it, then looked back at her, grinning and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "Actually, I was just about to explain that. That's the other part of this mission."

He gestured behind himself, "This is the principle that you should keep in mind as Chunin. Hokage-sama himself wrote it. The 'Heaven' in the text refers to the brain, a person's intelligence, and 'Earth' refers to the body, a person's physical skills and strength. 'If Heaven you lack, gain knowledge and be prepared.' So, if a person's weak point is his brain, like Naruto" — there was an indignant "Hey!" — "he should study and prepare for his missions.

"And 'if Earth you lack, run through the fields and seek strength," Iruka continued. "So someone whose weakness lies in strength, like Sakura-san, should train herself every day. 'And if you have both Earth and Heaven, the most dangerous of foes can be beaten.' Even the most perilous of missions can be overcome. They might even be easy."

"Then," Sakura said, "what about the missing letter?"

Iruka lifted one of the scrolls that had summoned him, revealing the blank center, "'Person.' The character for 'person' that was in here goes in the blanks. The survival mission you took in these past five days tested the basic abilities of the examinees as Chunin, and you guys completed it a day early. Carve the importance of knowledge and strength into your heart. Chunin are leaders. Take this principle with you and proceed to the Third Exam. That's all I was ordered to tell you."

There was a moment of silence as his expression softened, "Listen…about the third exam…don't overdo things, okay?"

The three Genin looked at him, blinking in surprise. He continued, "I mean it. I worry about you guys. Especially you, Naruto."

Naruto grinned.

"Don't worry about me, Iruka-sensei," he said, fingering the hilt of his sword. Iruka suddenly blinked, and it seemed he'd just realized that Naruto'd had it the entire time they'd been talking. "_No one_ in this exam is a match for Hyôrinmaru!"

Naruto felt faintly the presence of Hyôrinmaru hovering protectively over his shoulder, and watched as Iruka's eyes went wide. His heart skipped a beat, but he made sure that his grin never faltered. Was Iruka seeing Hyôrinmaru, he wondered. And was Hyôrinmaru doing it on purpose?

Iruka grinned, rubbing his neck sheepishly, "Yeah, I guess so, huh?"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

In the front of the room stood a group consisting of Chûnin, Jônin, and the Hokage. Protruding from the front wall was a pair of stone hands forming the seal for "Ram."

The Hokage's gaze swept out over the assembled Genin, and Naruto saw the old man's lips twitch as their eyes met, like he was holding back a smile. Naruto looked around him at the remaining contestants: twenty-one of them had made it and the majority of them were from his own village. Nine of those twenty-one were rookies, himself included, and another three belonged to a team that had only been in rotation for a year — Hyuga Neji, Tenten the weapons girls, and Rock Lee, Gai's team, who had graduated a year before Naruto. A swell of pride arose in his chest; he'd made it to the Third Exam. He'd passed the test that had disqualified fifty-one other examinees.

At the front, Kakashi and Gai appeared to be having a conversation — or rather, Gai was talking at Kakashi, who made no motion to signal that he was paying any attention. When Gai had finished speaking, Kakashi looked at him after a moment of silence and said a single sentence. Naruto slapped a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing as Gai deflated and spun around to make half-angry gestures at the back wall.

Anko stood straight and put a hand on her hip, smirking at the Genin as though she knew a secret, "Congratulations on passing! Hokage-sama will now explain the third test, so listen carefully, you brats!"

The Sandaime took a step forward, "Before we begin, there is something I'd like you to know."

He tugged his hat down slightly, baring the kanji for fire imprinted upon its center, "Why do we have all the alliance countries taking this exam together? 'To promote friendship amongst the countries' and 'To raise the level of Shinobi'… I don't want you to be confused about the true meaning. This exam is a replacement for war among the allied countries."

Sandaime's face was impassive as he took a puff on his pipe, "If you go back in time, the current allies were enemies who fought each other over who would rule. In order to prevent wasteful fighting, the stage that those countries chose for fighting…That is the origin of the Chûnin Exams."

"What do you mean?" Tenten asked, leaning to the side and peering around the person in front of her to see Sarutobi.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Inuzuka Kiba shouted. "I thought the point was to select Chûnin!"

Sarutobi continued, undaunted by the questions thrown at him, "It is true that this exam decides who is to become Chûnin, but it is also an opportunity for the different countries to show off their ninja to the important figures who watch this third exam — feudal lords and famous people from various countries, all of whom are potential clients, are invited here as guests. All of them will be here and see each of you fight.

He took another puff on his pipe.

"If there's a significant difference in power, the stronger country will receive more jobs and the weaker countries will receive less. And, just as importantly, a village will be able to show its rivals how it's grown and the quality of its warriors. A country is only as strong as its shinobi village, and the village is only as strong as its ninja. A shinobi village is only as strong as its weakest link. And a ninja's true strength is only revealed in a battle of life and death."

"Whatever," the redheaded Gaara muttered darkly. "Could you wrap up this philosophical talk and get down to the life and death stuff any time soon?"

"Hmph! If you insist," he paused for a second and took one last puff, "on to the third exam…"

"Actually…" A sick looking Jônin appeared in front of the Hokage. "As referee…Hokage-sama, if I may…?"

Sandaime nodded, a small smile on his face, "By all means…"

The Jônin turned toward the Genin, revealing his weary face and the dark bags under his eyes, "I am Gekkô Hayate and I am the referee." (Cough, cough) "Before the third test, I'm afraid we'll have to hold a preliminary. Since we are going to begin right away," (cough, cough) "I must ask any who wish to quit to do so now."

"Preliminary?" Kiba echoed incredulously. "Right _now_?"

"Hayate-san, I don't understand," Sakura piped up. "Why do we need a preliminary? Can't we just start the third exam with the remaining examinees?"

"Well," Gekkô said, coughing again, "it's not as if the first two tests weren't challenging enough. On the contrary, they were quite difficult. We still have too many applicants, however, and, like Hokage-sama said, there will be plenty of nobles watching."

"What does _that _have to do with anything?" Kiba retorted.

Gekkô coughed again, "The nobles will be traveling from all over to see the third exam, so the exam itself has to be quick and speedy to maintain viewer interest. To do that, we need to cut down the number of applicants with this preliminary round. As I said earlier, any who wish to quit may do so now without adversely affecting your teammates' chances of success. Everything from here on out will be one-on-one matches."

"Well," Kabuto raised his hand, "I'm out of here."

"What?" Naruto demanded sharply. "Kabuto-san, why are you quitting?"

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun," Kabuto sighed, "but I got the crap beat out of me in the second exam. And ever since that little fight I got into with those Sound ninja right before the first exam, I've been totally deaf in my left ear."

Kabuto shook his head helplessly, "Now they're saying this could be a fight to the death! I'm just not up to that."

Naruto stared hard at Kabuto's retreating back, an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. There was something…off about what had just happened. He didn't know what, exactly, it was, just that there was something wrong. Kabuto had lied — Lee had gotten beat up by those Sound ninja much worse than Kabuto's injury during the First Exam, yet he was well enough to fight a couple days later. There's no way Kabuto, who'd had two or three more days to heal, wouldn't have recovered, too.

Hayate looked around, but no one else raised a hand in surrender, "Right then, (cough, cough) if no one else wishes to forfeit, let's begin the preliminary rounds. As I stated before, it will be a one-on-one match — in other words, just like real combat. Since we now have exactly twenty people, there will be ten matches, and the winners will advance to the Third Exam proper. There are no rules. You will fight until the other person dies, is knocked out, or admits defeat, so, if you don't want to die, please give up. However, if I judge that the match is over, I will stop you to prevent any unnecessary deaths.

"Now," he looked over his shoulder and gave Anko a quick nod, then looked forward again. Behind him, a panel on the wall far above his head slid open to reveal a large monitor. "If you'll turn your attention to the screen behind me, this board will randomly display the names of two fighters for each match, and, without further ado, will display the names for the first match."

All of the Genin turned their gazes to the large screen behind Hayate, watching as it came to life and the blackness faded into a dark gray. The letters 'VS' lit up in the very center. Above them was the name "Uchiha Sasuke" and below them was "Akado Yoroi."

"Now," Hayate said, "if those whose names were displayed would please step forward…"

Sasuke smirked as he and Yoroi moved towards the examiner. Both looked confident and sure of their own victory. Gekkô Hayate made a motion towards the stands, "And if everyone else would please leave the arena…"

When everyone had left the area for the stands, he said, "First match: Uchiha Sasuke versus Akado Yoroi. Are there any objections?"

"No," both answered confidently.

"Please begin."

Yoroi made a hand seal. "Are you ready, Sasuke-kun?" he teased nastily.

He slipped his left hand into his utility pouch and positioned his right to hover in front of his stomach. He withdrew a few shuriken, while Sasuke simultaneously withdrew a kunai from the holster on his thigh. Without warning, Yoroi whipped his arm around and flung his shuriken at Sasuke, who knocked them away with a sharp swipe of his kunai.

Naruto only saw Sasuke wince and collapse to the floor, clutching oddly at the junction of his neck and left shoulder. Naruto frowned thoughtfully. Come to think of it, hadn't he done something similar back in the Forest when they'd been fighting those Rain ninja?

Yoroi shot forward and slammed his fist at Sasuke's head, but Sasuke rolled and dodged out of the way. Yoroi's fist sunk effortlessly into the tiled floor. Plunging his kunai into the ground as a brake, Sasuke spun around and twisted his feet, bringing Yoroi's legs from under him as he pulled the older Genin into a painful looking arm lock.

His victory was short lived. Yoroi let out a chuckle and his captured hand grabbed Sasuke's shirt in an iron grip. Naruto wasn't quite sure what to make of it — why grab his shirt? For what purpose? It got even more confusing when Sasuke let out something between a gasp and a grunt and slackened his grip on his foe. Yoroi ripped his arm free with incredibly little effort and brought his fist down on Sasuke's chest. Naruto thought he heard Sasuke's ribs crack.

The air driven viciously from Sasuke's lungs was clearly audible, even from the stands. His struggle to breathe was almost painful to watch.

Jerking up, Yoroi spun around, straddling his opponent as he latched that same hand on Sasuke's head, and it appeared to shimmer and glow.

"You're…stealing…my chakra," Sasuke gasped weakly, clutching at his opponent's wrist. His voice echoed throughout the deathly quiet stadium.

Yoroi chuckled darkly, an evil grin hidden beneath the cloth on his face, "So you finally noticed."

"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto called down into the arena. "What the hell are you doing, letting this joker beat you up? Kick his ass!"

At that moment, Sasuke seemed to catch his second wind, and lashed out into Yoroi's stomach and kicked him off. He was on his feet almost the moment he'd broken free. There was a furious scowl darkening his face, and though he looked alert and focused, he seemed also distracted. Beside him, Naruto heard Sakura whisper Sasuke's name worriedly.

Yoroi growled as he stood back up. He rushed Sasuke again, his technique charged and ready to go. Sasuke burst into motion, ducking under his attempt at grappling and sending a kick into the Yoroi's chin, forcing him into the air. Then, like Lee had five days ago, Sasuke followed him, appearing beneath Yoroi's airborne body.

Sasuke pressed his index and middle fingers into his opponent's back, "It's over."

Pushing off of the other Genin's spine, Sasuke flipped over his enemy's body, kicking towards his stomach. It was blocked and Sasuke used Yoroi's arm as a springboard, landing a vicious backhand in his face. Still twisting, he fired a punch into Yoroi's stomach, knocking the air from his body. Now only a few feet above the ground, Sasuke used his momentum to swing around and bring a solid kick into Yoroi's body, slamming him the last few inches into the floor.

"Shishi Rendan!" Sasuke named his technique.

Yoroi let out a pained groan, then fell still as his head lolled to the side. Sasuke, apparently exhausted, collapsed backwards onto his bum. His breath came in short, shallow pants.

Hayate bent over Yoroi, checking for signs of unconsciousness. When he was finished, he turned to the audience and declared, "Akado Yoroi is unable to continue. Uchiha Sasuke wins the first round and advances beyond the preliminary."

Sasuke let out a breath of relief and collapsed backwards…right into Kakashi's legs. Naruto blinked, then turned to look at where his sensei had been standing in the spectator's seats. But Kakashi didn't stand next to him any longer. He was indeed down in the arena, and he appeared to be talking Sasuke, but whatever he was saying was too low and quiet for Naruto to hear.

"What do you want, Kakashi?" Sasuke asked flatly. He had not bothered to keep his voice down.

Kakashi said something again, and Naruto gave a frustrated groan as he struggled to hear it, but it was no use. Kakashi was being deliberately quiet, probably to keep everyone else from eavesdropping on the conversation. But Naruto wanted to know what was being said, and it irked him that he couldn't, no matter how hard he strained his ears.

"No," Sasuke refused. "I want to stay and watch the other matches."

"Perhaps I wasn't clear," Kakashi said, a dangerous edge to his tone. It was the only thing he'd said that wasn't too hushed to make out. Naruto leaned over the railing, so far that he was in danger of falling over it, but though he could see the lips beneath Kakashi's mask move, he could not make out the words.

Sasuke hesitated a moment, then scoffed in angry defeat, "Fine."

And then Kakashi and Sasuke disappeared as a troupe of white-robed medics lifted Yoroi onto a stretcher and carried him away. The screen flared to life again and rushed through the names of the competitors. Naruto half wondered what would happen if a person's name came up twice, on both the top and bottom. Would he have to fight himself?

The names flashed to a halt and stopped to blaze the identities of the next combatants, "Zaku Abumi vs. Aburame Shino."

Zaku smirked confidently. His left arm had thawed and his right was wrapped in white bandages. "Who's this loser?"

Naruto scowled. It was that guy from the Forest, that guy from the Sound who had beat up Sakura. If he made it, that meant his teammates had, too. Naruto's fists tightened around the railing. Would he wind up fighting one of the Sound again? If he did…

When both Shino and Zaku had entered the stadium and stood in front of Hayate, the referee said, "We will now begin the second match."

The remaining Genin watched the match unfold. The six Genin who had borne witness to Zaku's Zankuuha — the remnants of Team Seven, Team Ten's Ino-Shika-Cho, and Lee — winced sympathetically every time Shino took a hit from it.

Hinata fidgeted with her fingers worriedly, her eyebrows knit. "Will Shino-kun be alright?" Naruto heard her ask softly.

"I wouldn't worry about Shino," Naruto could tell from his voice that Kiba was smirking. "He's one of the guys even I don't want to fight."

Neji watched the fight with a clear disinterest, as though it was beneath him. Naruto always hated those kind of guys, the ones who thought their name or better-than-average skills made them the divine's gift to man. "For a rookie," Neji said lazily, "this guy isn't so bad. But can he win?"

Tenten grimaced when Zaku's arms ruptured — broken shards of white bone protruded from the mangled skin of his elbows and forearms. Naruto was torn between vindictive satisfaction and feeling sick.

"It seems he can and did," she said flatly.

Down in the stadium, Hayate shouted, "Winner, Aburame Shino!"

The screen lit up again as Zaku was carried away on a stretcher, "**Tsurugi Misumi vs. Kankuro**"

The third match was a relatively quick one, the fastest yet. Tsurugi attacked and used his technique to wrap his body around Kankuro, and proceeded to break his neck. Only then had he discovered that what he was attacking was actually a puppet, and that the package wrapped in a mass of white bandages was the real Kankuro, safe and completely unharmed. With a twitch of his fingers, Kankuro had his puppet squeeze his opponent tightly, until Tsurugi was unable to continue. It was incredibly creepy, Naruto decided.

Less than a minute after the match had started, Hayate said, "Winner, Kankuro."

Ino and Sakura's match, which was after Kankuro's, ended in an anticlimactic draw. They were too evenly matched to take the other down, so they finished with a double knock out. Naruto could hardly believe it.

The screen lit up for the fifth time, reading "**Temari vs. Tenten**"

Temari was the worst possible match up for Tenten. None of her weapons — not kunai, shuriken, kusari-gama, senbon, nothing — could reach Temari at all. She was defeated easily, almost effortlessly, and when Temari won, sending Tenten up towards the ceiling, she caught her beaten opponent on the top of her steel fan. Tenten's back was arched at an unhealthy angle.

Naruto felt a surge of anger burst in his gut (he may not know her that well, but he considered her his friend), and the only thing that stopped him from leaping into the arena was that Lee beat him to it. The normally calm, if extremely passionate, Lee looked positively murderous, and only Gai's reprimands to his young pupil prevented Naruto from taking off where Lee had stopped. Now was not the time and here was not the place, Naruto had gotten from Gai's short lecture. But if they met in the finals, Naruto promised himself, he would definitely be getting some revenge.

**Nara Shikamaru vs. Kin Tsuchi**

"A girl?" Shikamaru asked, as if looking for confirmation. He sighed, "Mendôkuse."

Their match didn't last very long either. Kin had had Shikamaru caught in her trap for a few moments, but Shikamaru had come back and out done her. Using his Kagemane no Jutsu, he forced her to hit her head against the wall. She knocked herself unconscious and Shikamaru was declared the winner.

After Kin was carried away on a stretcher, the screen flashed again, revealing the combatants of the next fight, "**Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba**"

"Ha! We got lucky, Akamaru!" Kiba gloated as he jumped down into the arena. Akamaru, his dog, gave an enthusiastic bark of agreement.

Excited to finally have his match, Naruto flung himself over the railing, landing on the tiled floor with surprising ease. There was a huge grin on his face, one that was easily matched by his opponent. Hayate stood between them.

"Heh," Kiba clenched his fist. "I feel bad for you, Dead Last, so I'll end this in one punch!"

"Yeah right, dog-breath!" Naruto shot back. "I'm way different than I was before! In fact, you might as well just quit right now! Why don't you and your master go back to chasing cats?"

"Akamaru isn't my master!" Kiba shouted vehemently, glaring. "He's my partner!"

"Prove it," Naruto called coolly. Kiba growled.

"The Seventh match, Uzumaki Naruto versus Inuzuka Kiba," Hayate said calmly. "Begin!"

Kiba's hands instantly clasped together in a hand seal, "Ninpô: Shikyaku no Jutsu!" (Ninja Arts: Four-legged Technique)

Kiba dropped down on all fours as a cocky grin split his face. His canines lengthened into fangs and his fingernails into claws, sharp and pointed. Without warning, he dashed for Naruto, intent, it seemed, on fulfilling his promise and winning with a single attack. Naruto, too surprised to counter (was Kiba always this fast?), was hit solidly in the stomach. He flew backwards and collided painfully with the stadium wall, which crumbled around him, sending up a thick dust.

"It's over, Hayate-san," Kiba said confidently, and Naruto could practically hear the smirk on his lips. "He won't be getting up."

Naruto's eyebrow gave a twitch, and any chastisement he had prepared for himself was flushed down the drain. But he mastered his anger; as he had learned long ago, back when everyone hated him, back before Iruka, Kakashi, and his friends, back before Konohamaru, Haku, Zabuza, and Inari, the best revenge was proving them wrong and making them eat their words.

So as the smoke and rubble dispersed, Naruto stood up, rubbing his stomach with a mocking wince. The look of surprise on the faces of both Kiba and the rest of the audience sent a thrill of satisfaction through his gut. He grinned, "You're stronger than I thought. Guess I shouldn't have let you get that free punch in."

His chakra control was shot, he knew, so the swarm tactics he'd used during Kakashi's bell test, against Mizuki, and on the bridge to scare the mercenaries wouldn't work here. With the way his chakra was fluctuating, he could get anywhere from two clones to two hundred, but never the exact amount he wanted. So Kage Bunshin was out.

Besides, he wanted to show off. He was getting tired of everyone always underestimating him.

He unsheathed the sword on his back and the scabbard disappeared into thin air. Several people gasped and Naruto's grin widened, "Let's see how you do."

There was a yell of shocked outrage somewhere up in the stands ("teaching that kind of thing to a rookie Genin!" cried a voice), but he paid it no mind. He didn't have the time, not when his opponent was tensing and prepared to pounce.

Snarling, Kiba leapt at Naruto claws first, swiping towards his chest. Holding his weapon one-handed, Naruto deflected the blow easily, knocking Kiba to the side. A dark growl rising up in his chest, Kiba turned around and ran forward, taking another swing. Again, Naruto deflected it, flinging a foot out to trip the other boy.

Kiba tumbled head first to the ground. His momentum carried him nearly two whole yards. Rolling, he flipped back onto his feet, digging his nails into the tile to slow his movement. An angry snarl curled at his lips, exposing his large incisors like a rabid dog. He reached into his kunai pouch and pulled out something small enough to fit in his fist.

He flung them and they exploded, releasing a thick smoke that rose up and engulfed Naruto like a woolen blanket. Naruto raised his free arm and covered his mouth, peering out into purplish fog with narrowed eyes. He couldn't see a thing, not even the lights above him or the floor beneath his feet. He was blind — and he was reminded suddenly of Zabuza's Kirigakure no Jutsu, of the terrible fear that trembled inside of him then and the burst of chakra Kakashi had used to clear the mist. He was reminded that sight and the ability to see weren't necessary to fight. He was reminded that Zabuza had fought using only sound. So he closed his eyes and listened.

And then he heard it, the scuffle of sharply-clawed paws on the tiles behind him. He summoned a single Kage Bunshin, gave a quick prayer of thanks that it had worked, and grabbed Akamaru out of the air by the scruff of his neck. The dog tried desperately to scratch at his face, but he held it at arm's length and handed it off to his clone.

The sound of sandals came next, and it had to be Kiba coming towards him at a run. The flutter of cloth — Kiba's jacket, he realized — a triumphant grunt, and the sound of something being swung through the air. Kiba thought he was going to win, Naruto recognized blankly. Kiba thought he was going to beat him with this next attack, as though a couple smoke bombs, a dog, and a single punch would take him down. Kiba thought he was so weak that he wouldn't and couldn't fight back.

Something cold blossomed in Naruto's chest, the same cold something that had erupted inside him during the Mizuki incident and in that battle with the Sound team during the Second Exam. It was like fury or anger, but it burned frigid instead of molten. It left his head clear instead of hot and fuzzy and red. It gave him a laser-like focus.

"Idiot," Naruto said in an uncharacteristically calm voice. His free hand caught Kiba's wrist and held tight. Kiba, no matter how much he pushed, could not move his fist forward. "You really shouldn't…underestimate me."

A massive pressure leapt out from Naruto's body, sweeping away the smoke effortlessly. Kiba took in a short, sharp gasp and seemed frozen in place, his eyes wide and mouth half open. There were several gasps up in the stands — Sakura and Ino, Naruto could see, looked like they could barely stand upright, Shikamaru's hands were shaking violently, Neji was staring unblinkingly with his mouth half open, and all of the Jounin were wide-eyed.

A canine whine drew Kiba's attention to Akamaru, who was being held up by a second Naruto only a few feet away. Naruto could see the disbelief in Kiba's face — he must be wondering how Naruto had come so far in just a few months. Naruto, who had been a failure during the Academy, was beating him effortlessly. And Naruto took pride in that; for Kiba to be thinking like that, so shocked that Naruto was beating him, Naruto had to be proving him wrong. He was proving that he was worth something, that he wasn't the useless dropout everyone had thought he was.

He let Kiba's arm go, then sent a roundhouse kick smashing into Kiba's cheek. Kiba went tumbling and skidding across the arena, and slid to a halt halfway to the other side. He'd pulled himself into a kneel almost the moment he'd stopped, wiping away the blood that was dribbling down from his split lip.

"Let Akamaru go," Kiba snarled, eyes blazing with fury.

Naruto nearly chuckled. Did Kiba think him that stupid?

"What do you take me for, a fool?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. There were several snorts from his fellow Genin.

"Fine," Kiba reached into his pouch again, "have it your way."

He tossed a small pill, which Akamaru caught in midair and promptly swallowed, his fur turning red as he growled. He spun, his claws dispelling the clone that held him. Running, he rushed past the stunned Naruto to stand faithfully next to his partner, Kiba. He wanted to protest — wasn't that cheating? — but didn't even have the chance.

"Now!" Kiba bent down, hands in a seal as Akamaru jumped atop his back. "Jujin Bunshin!" (Man-Beast Clone)

In a burst of smoke, a second Kiba had appeared in the place of the dog, smirking viciously at his opponent. Naruto blinked in surprise; he'd never seen such a technique. Then, he grinned broadly and brandished his sword offensively. Two Kibas against one of him. This just might be fun.

"Sôten ni zase," Naruto commanded calmly, "Hyôrinmaru."

"Oh no you don't!" one Kiba cried as the two of them bounded forward on all fours. They spun, creating two vortexes that rushed forth side by side. "Gatsuuga!" (Fang over Fang)

Naruto took off in their direction like a speeding bullet, sword trailing by his leg. He leapt up just as he was about to collide with them, twisting to get between the two winding tornadoes. For a single instant, time slowed, and Naruto was drifting through the air, looking upwards. He was suspended there, watching as Kiba and Akamaru soared past him both above and below. And then it was over, and he spun to land upright.

One of the vortexes suddenly veered off course; it was connected to Naruto — or rather, his sword — by a long metal chain. Naruto took hold of the chain with his free hand, using it to swing the vortex, which had stopped spinning to reveal a frozen Kiba, around on a circular path. When he released his grip, his captive kept going and slammed right into the wall. The ice covering Kiba shattered and the chain went slack, then snapped back to Naruto and hung limply down by his feet. Its extra length had vanished.

The Kiba who'd had the misfortune to be swung into the wall fell to the floor and stayed there, motionless but breathing. There was a brief puff of smoke and the transformation fell — it was actually Akamaru, not Kiba. His fur had returned to its normal white and his eyes were closed. He was clearly unconscious.

The second swirl of air and chakra dissipated and a second Kiba landed, staring at small mass of fur that was his comrade. He growled, "Akamaru."

The dog didn't respond.

"Akamaru!" Kiba cried.

Naruto grinned and said, "Looks like he's out cold!"

There were several exasperated groans throughout the arena.

"You!" Kiba snarled. He ran forward again, once more transforming into a spinning vortex as he shouted, "Tsuuga!" (Piercing Fang)

Naruto leapt over the attack, turning around in midair as he brought his sword up. Both hands tightened over the hilt, the blue wrappings rubbing comfortably against his palms. With a quick jerk, he began his downward swing. An azure dragon jolted forth from the blade's majestic arc, its red eyes gleaming.

The dragon roared as it soared for its target, carving a winding path through the air of the arena. Kiba stopped spinning and turned around, surprise etched onto his face as the beast charged towards him.

"Kiba-kun!" Kurenai called in alarm.

Her voice seemed to snap Kiba out of his stupor and he dodged at the last second, watching as the dragon collided with the tiled floor. A large ice spike remained protruding from the ground, its edges jagged and sharp. Cold steel pressed up against Kiba's neck.

Naruto stood in front of him, Hyôrinmaru poised threateningly against his opponent's jugular vein. His eyes were as icebergs floating in the frosted sea, "You lose."

Kiba jerked forward, clutching at his stomach where Naruto had punched him as his knees fell from under him. Kiba took one more glance at Naruto, then collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Naruto swung his sword over his shoulder, placing it in the sheath that had just reappeared as if from nowhere.

Hayate knelt down, checking on Kiba. He stood a second later, raising his hand in the blonde's direction as he said, in the loudest voice he could muster, "Winner: Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto went back up to the stands again as Kiba and Akamaru were carried away on a stretcher. He felt invincible again, like nothing could touch him. He had just reached the spectator stands when two more names flashed onto the large screen.

"**Hyuga Hinata vs. Hyuga Neji**"

A few minutes later, they stood across from each other. Neji's stance was firm and strong, but Hinata was hunched over herself and seemed to be trying to maker herself as small as possible. Her legs were unsteady and her hands were shaking violently. The contrast was incredible.

"I never thought I'd be facing you," Neji said coolly, his face carved into a stoic mask, "Hinata-sama."

"Neji-niisan," Hinata whispered.

"Before we begin, I'd like to tell you, Hinata-sama," Neji's spoke calmly, "to surrender. You're not fit to be a ninja."

"N-no! I-I— "

"You are too gentle," Neji explained. "You seek harmony and to avoid conflict. You allow others to steer you, and you follow them because you can't stand up for yourself. You have no self-confidence. You thought it would be fine to remain a Genin, but a team cannot enter with all three members, so you went along with Inuzuka and Aburame. You are here unwillingly."

"No!" Hinata interrupted. "I e-entered this exam…t-to change myself!"

Neji's eyes narrowed, "You really are a spoiled brat of the Main House, aren't you? Don't you understand? People cannot change! A loser like you will always be a loser!"

That struck something in Naruto, and the anger that had begun to simmer when Neji started his tirade erupted in full-blown rage. His fists clenched tightly upon the steel railing and it was all he could do not to jump into the ring and deck that pompous asshole.

"Shut up!" Naruto shouted. The steel beneath his fingers gave an abused groan. Neji's narrowed eyes turned in his direction, but he was not fazed. "I'm getting tired of hearing all this stupid shit! Oi, Hinata, don't listen to him! Kick that jerk into next week!"

Something changed then in Hinata. Her shaking legs were still and firm. The slump of her shoulders straightened. Her bowed head lifted and was held high. Every iota of fear and uncertainty had been shredded and vanished. The girl who stood there now exuded confidence so potent that it was almost palpable.

Something in Naruto that he could not name growled in approval. There was a burn of adrenaline in his stomach that had nothing to do with hunger or anger.

"Hm!" Hinata moved into a stance. Neji caught it out of the corner of his eye and smirked, then sunk into his own stance.

"Begin!"

In an instant, they were at each other's throats. The ten foot distance that separated them closed almost like magic and, in a flash, they were mere inches apart.

Neji ducked under Hinata's first strike, stepping inside her guard and aiming his own attack at her heart. Hinata quickly dodged to the side, going against the traditional Juken motions by throwing a roundhouse kick into Neji's stomach.

Neji used his momentum to duck under her kick, tucking his body into a ball as he rolled out of the way. Faster than most of the Genin could follow, he was on his feet again, flying towards Hinata with as much speed as he possessed.

Hinata moved to the side of his first glowing hand, but wasn't fast enough to dodge the follow up attack of Neji's left hand. Hinata winced and stumbled backwards, clutching at where her cousin had made contact. Naruto heard Gai-sensei explaining the Hyuga clan Taijutsu, how it was designed to attack the inside of the body instead of causing blunt force damage. It was a style that struck the chakra network and organs instead of the skin and bones.

"You should give up," Neji said again. "It's clear to me that the differences in our skills are too great. This road only ends in your failure."

"I-I won't!" Hinata declared firmly. "I don't go back on my word! B-because that...th-that is my nindou!"

Something happened, then, Naruto felt it. There was a short pause and Hinata stood motionless, completely stopped. Hyôrinmaru roused in the back of his mind curiously, as though he sensed something familiar. Naruto had a short vision of a blazing fire, which coalesced into a flaming bird and gave a single flap of its massive wings. He blinked and the image was gone.

Hinata jerked to a start. She reached her hand forwards, grasping at air as her eyes narrowed determinedly, "Hajike, Tobiume!" (Snap, Flying Plum Tree)

Naruto saw Neji's eyes narrow as the gears in his head lurched into motion. It sounded similar, yet completely different from Hyôrinmaru, but if it had even the slightest bit in common...Neji made the connection at the same time as Naruto, that whatever was about to happen would be similar to Hyôrinmaru — and Naruto could see that Neji was determined to stop Hinata before she could unleash the full power of whatever she had just summoned.

Prongs of red energy swirled in the air and coalesced into an oblong shape, then formed a sword in Hinata's palm (and elicited gasps from her audience) as Neji dashed towards her again, hands coated with chakra. With a wild, uncharacteristic scream, Hinata pointed the tip of her new blade at her cousin. A ball of pink energy shot forward, but Neji dodged around it, moved inside her guard, and knocked the weapon from her grasp. It clattered to the ground uselessly and vanished in a flash of red.

"You are within my field of Hakke!"

Hinata's head whipped around just in time to see the angry, piercing expression on her cousin's face, followed quickly by Neji's blazing hands. The fingers struck home and Naruto watched her jerk as though she'd been stabbed.

"Two palms!"

A swarm of hands, so fast that Naruto almost couldn't catch the individual motions, struck her, and she jerked again as though she'd been stabbed.

"Four palms!"

Another swarm came and the number of hits she took quadrupled.

"Eight palms! Sixteen palms!"

A third swarm rained down on her, and she looked as though every hit drained her energy. Something in Naruto squirmed in anxious desperation.

"Thirty-two palms!"

The last swarm came faster than the rest, and they seemed to strike everywhere at once — her arms, her legs, and her chest. To Naruto, it seemed like every jab of Neji's fingers was an arrow piercing her body, and there was a veritable cloud that struck her all at once.

"Sixty-four palms!"

The final strike, the sixty-fifth palm, came at her, throwing her back a few feet where she collapsed to the ground. She was slumped and motionless.

"This is the difference in talent that will never change," Neji said acidly. "This is the destiny that you cannot alter."

Hayate looked ready to call it — his hand was already in motion and his mouth had just opened to speak. He was going to give the match to Neji. But…

"It's not over yet!" Naruto shouted. Everyone turned to look at him, and stared as though he had grown a second head. "Get up, Hinata! Don't let him treat you like that! I believe in you! You can do it!"

But he couldn't let him end this. He couldn't let them give up on Hinata. There was something inside him, perhaps the part that sensed a kindred spirit, that would not let them stop her. Not here, after she'd gotten so far.

"Naruto, stop!" Sakura yelled frantically. "She can't even stand! There's no way she can keep going! You're going to get her killed!"

"I-it's not," a quiet voice interrupted. Down in the arena, Hinata was slowly lifting herself off the ground, and though her arms were wobbling, her legs were unsteady, and she looked as if a strong breeze would knock her over, she did not lie down or surrender.

Hinata stood shakily, "It's n-not over…"

"Just give up," Neji told her. "Go back to being the weakling of the Main Branch. Go back to suffering at the fate of our family's differences."

"You s-say you c-can see e-everything," Hinata stuttered weakly. "But I th-think you're o-overlooking s-something. Th-the one s-suffering from the differences in o-our family…is you."

And then Neji was moving forward, and it was clear, from the blazing look in his eyes and the raw intent radiating from him that he was aiming to kill Hinata.

In a flash, several people had moved to stand between the two Hyuga. Several Jônin, including Hayate, surrounded the white-eyed boy, poised to intercept if he chose to move further and kill his cousin. Naruto had his blade set and ready to slit Neji's throat, his eyes icy.

"Sôten ni zase," Naruto whispered coldly and his intent swept outwards from his body as an incredible pressure, "Hyôrin—"

"That's enough, Naruto-kun," Kakashi stated calmly, his tone firm and brooking no argument. The pressure vanished as suddenly as it had appeared and Naruto turned his head, staring at his Jônin sensei with his frigid eyes.

Hinata coughed painfully and collapsed backwards. Naruto was at her side in an instant, lowering her gently to the floor as she trembled and coughed again.

"D-did I…?" Hinata coughed violently, and there were increasingly large amounts of blood mixed in with her saliva. Her sword had become an ordinary katana. Her eyes were closed. "D-did I do good…Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah," Naruto whispered soothingly. She didn't respond, not even to loose a satisfied sigh. She'd lost consciousness barely a second after asking. "You did great."

More blood trickled from her mouth, and it didn't show any signs of stopping. Naruto's veins ran cold and his breath caught in his chest. The only thing he could come up with to explain it was internal bleeding and considering the numerous internal injuries she had to be suffering from (what kind of person used deadly force against a member of his own family?), she might not make it all the way to the hospital. His fists clenched tightly and he stared furiously at the tiled floor. There wasn't anything he could do; he didn't know any medical ninjutsu at all.

"I wouldn't be so hasty, child," a soft voice said. Naruto's gaze jerked to his right; Hyôrinmaru's heavy snout was hovering over his shoulder as the dragon took in Hinata's injured form. To Naruto's surprise, the world had stopped and not a soul was moving or even breathing. "I will provide and manipulate the energy, all you have to do is move your hand where I tell you."

Naruto nodded quickly; he was desparate. He wanted to save Hinata, no matter what. Instantly, the world started up again as Hyôrinmaru disappeared. No more than a second later, Naruto was flooded with a powerful feeling and his body felt lighter than air.

"Now," Hyôrinmaru's voice whispered softly, "unzip her jacket and take it off. The first place we must pay attention to is her heart."

Nodding almost imperceptibly, Naruto dutifully unzipped the Hinata's heavy jacket and brushed the flaps aside. He blushed slightly at the sight of her feminine assets (far more than Sakura had, a treacherous part of his mind pointed out), restrained only by a tight black shirt, but knocked the thought away as he rested his palm — glowing white — against her sternum.

"What are you doing?" Kurenai demanded from him hotly, but he ignored her, moving his hand further down to rest on her bruised stomach at Hyôrinmaru's command. Strangely enough, he could sort of _feel_ the damaged capillaries and taut smooth muscles heal under his fingers. It was kind of like taking someone's pulse, except he could feel the damaged flesh knitting itself back together.

Once more, he moved his hand, delicately peeling her jacket off so as to reach her arms. He watched in amazement as the purpling skin slowly returned to its natural cream color under his touch, until no sign of the bruises remained. The glow dissipated. Naruto suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded. Bed sounded good right then. But not yet; he still had something he needed to do.

He turned, dipping his hand in the small pool of Hinata's blood, then lifted both his now crimson fist and his blazing blue eyes to Neji's stoic form. "In the Finals," he promised viciously, "you're going down."

His vision blurred and the world swayed around him, then he fell backwards into someone's arms and knew nothing more.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

When Naruto awoke, something fuzzy was tickling his nose and his arms were thrown over something large and wide. Blearily, he opened his eyes to see the gravity defying white hair of his Jônin sensei and the cobblestone streets of his home village, Konohagakure no Sato. He blinked, mumbling weakly, "Huh?"

"Oh, Naruto-kun," Kakashi glanced back at him, adjusting the boy's position on his back, "you're awake. Good."

"Un?" Naruto answered lamely. "What…happened?"

"I didn't know you could forget that kind of thing," Kakashi said casually. "After all, several people are wondering how you managed to heal such severe injuries when you yourself know nothing about medical ninjutsu. Kurenai-san was livid. She was afraid you were trying to do in Hinata-sama."

"Don't…know," Naruto muttered, resting his pounding head against Kakashi's shoulder. Oh, but he had a horrible headache. _Again_. "Hyôrinmaru…told me what to do…"

"Hyôrinmaru?" Kakashi posed. "Your sword told you how to heal someone?"

"Not just…a sword," Naruto loosed a jaw-cracking yawn. "He's a dragon, too. Tenten-san said something about…sealed in a sword."

"Oh?" Kakashi asked. "And this sword, this dragon, Hyôrinmaru, where did you get him? How long have you had him?"

"Forever," Naruto said tiredly. "According to him…he's been with me forever. He's only been a sword since the second part of the exam."

There was a sudden tension in Kakashi's shoulders, but it was gone so fast that Naruto wasn't sure he hadn't imagined it. "Are you sure he's safe, Naruto-kun? Are you sure he's a dragon? Are you sure he's not…" there was a hesitant pause, "the Kyûbi?"

"No, he's…dragon all right," the blond mumbled. "Seen him and everything. Said something 'bout being my sword and shield. Whatever that means."

Kakashi remained silent after that, and Naruto bobbed in and out of consciousness for the next half an hour. Before he knew it, Kakashi was carrying him up a long set of steps, then another, and another. He heard Kakashi muttered something vague about Hinata and "warning Kurenai," but his brain was filled with so much fog that he couldn't hear exactly what Kakashi intended to warn Kurenai about.

There was a tug on Naruto's right leg, and he opened bleary eyes to see that Kakashi was working the knob of a very familiar door — the door to his apartment, in fact. A few weeks before, he might have wondered at the fact that Kakashi apparently knew where he lived, but so many days of his sensei bringing him a basket of fruit to eat had long since dispelled any notions of anonymity.

Naruto closed his eyes again and began to drift off. Sometime later — it could have been an hour, it could have been six — there was a tug on his right leg again. He didn't bother to open his eyes, and even if he had been so inclined, he doubted he could have. He just felt so tired. For the first time in his life, it was as if his boundless energy had abandoned him.

He felt himself fall backwards, and thought vaguely that he might be falling, and then he landed softly on the inviting familiarity of his mattress. Kakashi had brought him to his room, to his bed, and had laid him there as gently as he could. How thoughtful, he wondered absently.

A hand grabbed his right leg and lifted it, slipping his sandal from his foot, then gently lowered it again. The hand grabbed his left leg next, lifting it, too, then slipped his other sandal off his left foot, before setting that leg back down, as well. It was the kind of thing a parent might do for their child — and that thought sent a cold, lonely chill through Naruto, down to his very core.

It was a familiar ache, the one that struck him. Though Iruka and Kakashi and all his friends had become like a family to him, he had always longed for his parents, for the people who had brought him into the world and loved him so much that they would sacrifice their lives for him.

He had often imagined their faces — perhaps he had inherited his mother's blond hair, but the spikiness had come from his father. Maybe he had his father's eyes but his mother's nose and chin. Maybe both his parents had his unusually bright blue eyes, but his father's hair was brown and his mother had given him his blonde.

Whatever faces he gave them, there was always one thing in common. They always had the biggest smiles on their faces, and those smiles were always directed at him. He imagined them smiling at him when he got up in the morning, when he had graduated from the Academy, and waiting for him when he got home. He imagined them smiling as he regaled them with a story about his latest mission, and they would always be interested, even if it was a routine D-Rank. Even if it was just capturing Tora.

He imagined their voices, too. He imagined his father's voice as a smooth tenor, kind of like Kakashi's, but a bit lighter. His mother's he thought of as a lilting soprano, though it could go higher when she screamed (as she naturally would every time he got in trouble). His father, of course, would just sit there and try not to laugh, probably hiding behind a newspaper or a book, or covering his mouth with his hand.

But no matter what, they would always love him. He wished for that more than anything — that his parents really had sacrificed themselves for him, like the old man had told him, and that they hadn't abandoned him because they didn't want him.

So, as Kakashi left and closed the door behind him, Naruto imagined his parents, smiling and telling him tenderly that they loved him, and drifted off to sleep with their voices whispering in his ear.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto rubbed his eyes and slowly stood up. His sandals sunk in the snow, but no feeling of coldness reached him as the white fuzz buried his toes. He looked around, only to discover he had once more returned to the world of Hyôrinmaru. He blinked and wondered just why he was back.

"You're here," the dragon's voice said calmly, swerving its long body around him. It twisted until it was looking him in the eyes, its lower body coiled around his feet and legs. "Tell me, child, do you know why you're here?"

"No," Naruto started, shaking his head, "I—"

His tongue froze mid motion as images flashed through his mind and in front of his eyes, reminding him of what he'd done. His glowing white hand resting on Hinata's chest, Hyôrinmaru hovering over his shoulder, his palm gliding over her smooth arms, and falling back into unconsciousness.

"That…energy," Naruto began slowly, his mind working a mile a minute, "what was it? It wasn't chakra."

"Good," the dragon cooed, its eyes narrowing slightly. "You've started to become more observant. The clarity with which you perceive things is growing, sharpening. You've started down the path of a true shinobi."

Hyôrinmaru moved closer, until its snout was mere inches from his face. The two thin, long, fleshy feelers beneath its nostrils wavered in a nonexistent wind as it spoke, "As you well know, chakra is made of physical and spiritual energy blended together, but did you know that you could separate those energies and use them individually?"

Naruto's eyes widened as he slowly shook his head. Hyôrinmaru continued, "Chakra is composed of the physical energy and the spiritual energy, reiryoku. Your body mixes the two automatically, which creates Chakra, and that Chakra is what keeps you alive. Even if you have a monstrous amount of reiryoku, if it does not mix and form Chakra, you will die.

"Reiryoku, or 'spirit energy', is what allows chakra to be channeled for Jutsu. By itself, Reiryoku has several uses that can be helpful to the life of a shinobi. The easiest example was how you healed that girl of such life-threatening injuries. Beyond that, Reiryoku can be used to form attacks and the like with which you can defeat your enemies. When it is not mixed into chakra, Reiryoku is incapable of molding the elements.

"A normal shinobi might have a three-to-two or five-to-three ratio of physical and spiritual energy, and he must train to achieve a closer balance. A shinobi who can reach a perfect one-to-one ratio need not have a monstrous amount of chakra to be an extremely powerful ninja. Most, however, only reach a one-point-five-to-one ratio. A kunoichi, by contrast, tends to have a three-to-four ratio, and the fact that they have more reiryoku gives them better control of their chakra. For a kunoichi, it is much easier to have incredible chakra control.

"_However_," Hyôrinmaru stressed the word. "You, Naruto, as a result of the Kyubi, have a one-to-six ratio of physical and spiritual energy. You have so much excess reiryoku that your body, no matter how hard it tries, cannot compensate. It tries desperately to make more physical energy to match your reiryoku, but the rate at which your reiryoku increases is monstrous. Your chakra continues to grow and expand, elongating your lifespan, but so does your reiryoku. The imbalance makes it incredibly difficult to control. And so, Naruto, you have an enormous amount reiryoku just simmering beneath the surface, every growing and ever waiting, untouched and unused."

"I guess I sorta get what you're saying, Hyôrinmaru," Naruto started quietly, a confused frown on his face, "but what's the point of telling me? I mean, I suppose it might make it easier to train if I know what's wrong and what I need to do, but _I _don't know how to manipulate Reiryoku, so how's it going to help me?"

Hyôrinmaru grinned, baring his large, sharp teeth, "Quite simple, actually. _You_ may not know how, but that does not mean you are incapable of _learning._"

Naruto's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, a ghost of a grin stretching at his lips, "You mean…?"

The dragon's grin widened, "Tomorrow, you will seek out that white-haired teacher of yours and have him teach you during the afternoons. In the mornings, from dawn's first light till the sun has reached its midday zenith, _I _will be teaching you to mold and use your Reiryoku as a weapon."

"Really?" Naruto asked excitedly, his eyes sparkling as the dragon nodded. He thrust his arms into the air, his own grin threatening to split his face, "Yatta! This is going to be _so_ cool! Wait!"

He refocused back onto the dragon still coiled around his lower body, "Does this stuff require hand seals?"

As Hyôrinmaru shook his head, Naruto leapt into the air, whooping loudly. He laughed excitedly, "All right! I'm gonna be an awesome ninja! Ha! Take _that _Sasuke! You can't copy _my _Jutsu, because they don't use hand seals!"

Naruto grunted as the dragon knocked him to the ground with its tail, hitting the earth face first and making an imprint in the snow. The dragon sighed, more to himself than anything, "Good grief. I don't think I could have taken much more of that."

As the Naruto stood, rubbing his head, the dragon leveled a glare at him, "You must learn to contain your excitement or else _nothing _I teach you will help. Shinobi are silent and cunning. You are beginning to understand and apply this concept, but you _must_ control such loud and annoying impulses."

Naruto nodded, thoroughly cowed. Hyôrinmaru cooed, "Good. Now…"

The dragon swiveled away, leaving Naruto to stand alone as it faced him, "Your training begins…immediately."

— **o.0.O.O.0.o —**

_**To be continued…**_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach**

****I would like to ask you all a favor. For every chapter of this story you read, please leave a review. My personal goal for this story is to reach at least 1600, though I would like to reach 2000 and I do believe I might die of happiness if I got so far as 10000 (Mon Dieu!). ****

**I've considered rewriting SUTFH, or at least revising it, for a while now. And, looking back on how this chapter turned out in the original version, and even in the two or three revisions I had of it, I must say that this version is more satisfying. It feels more proper. And I've decided also to try to maintain an unwavering restriction to Naruto's POV. I might add in the villains' POV every now and again, but once a section has a designated POV, it will stick to it. No more changes mid-paragraph.**

**There are several things that will be different about this story, most notably that I'm gonna try and keep Naruto more to his canon personality (which will be accomplished by imagining him as Zack Fair, funnily enough). Some things will remain the same (or even completely unchanged, as some of you will have noticed), but, by the time I've finished these revisions, I will hopefully have a more balanced Naruto and anywhere from ten to twenty-thousand more words worth of content (+6000 already!). I imagine that I will also be revising CCTAM, or even rewriting that outright as well, to match this story.**

**Am I the only one who nearly cried during the section about Naruto's parents?**

**I actually had a really cool Bleach Time Travel idea cooked up, where Ichigo's Fullbring allowed him to time travel using his Badge (with the first one being unintentional and flinging him back to right before the Shattered Shaft), but with all the other things I'm going to be doing, even if I was completely and totally free this summer, I don't think I'd have time to write it.**

**Another thing that bothers me, something that I've mentioned before, is the inability of some of you to realize that **_**Naruto**_** is the one who's changed, so **_**Naruto**_** is the only one who will act differently, and it's only **_**Naruto's**_** actions that will cause others to act differently and events to change. The story stays pretty close to canon, at least for the first few chapters, because Naruto is the point of divergence and a lot of the events happening were**_** already in motion **_**long before Naruto started to change**_**.**_** I'm sick and tired of people who come along and say, "You're just following canon." Well, yeah, because you haven't been reading long enough to see the divergence. And also because I'm not a big enough Naruto fan to toss canon and create a whole new plotline (abandoning Orochimaru, Akatsuki, Madara, Kabuto, etc.) because you can't notice the significance of the changes that HAVE been made. **

_**Ore wa sekai o kaetai dattebayo!**_

**James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes**

_**James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes **_**(Signature best viewed in **_Wendy Medium_** font style)**


	2. Defiers of Fate

— "_You will stand above your brothers, the best of them all."_

**Absolute Zero: The Azure Sky  
>By: <strong>James D. Fawkes

**Chapter Two: Defiers of Fate  
>— o.0.O.O.0.o — <strong>

Naruto woke up especially early the day after the preliminaries, dressed quickly, had a single bowl of ramen (much less than usual), read Kakashi's note (which explained in remarkable detail how the Finals were set up and who was fighting who), and set out to begin his day. The first thing he did after locking his apartment door was seek out Sasuke and Hinata.

He didn't have much luck.

Under different circumstances, he would have gone to Kakashi to find out where they were, but Kakashi wasn't anywhere to be found. He wasn't at home in his apartment, he wasn't at Ichiraku (where Naruto stopped to eat another bowl of ramen), he wasn't at the dango shop, or the memorial stone, or even at the Hokage's office. For all intents and purposes, Hatake Kakashi had vanished from the face of the earth.

So, Naruto decided, he would have to find Sasuke and Hinata by himself. Piece of cake, he thought. How hard could it be to find two clan heirs in Konoha? It wouldn't take him more than half an hour, tops. It would probably be even faster if he did it like Sakura would tell him to, and Sakura would probably tell him to ask around because "you never know what people on the street hear."

So Naruto went around the village, asking the people who would actually talk to him and eavesdropping on those who wouldn't. Half an hour passed, then an hour, then two. After three hours, Naruto gave a frustrated growl and gave up on Sakura's method. He turned on his heel and stalked back towards the hospital, the first place he normally would have looked.

He felt like an idiot.

If he had bothered to do things the way he normally did instead of trying to be smart and use Sakura's methods, he would have accomplished his goal hours earlier. The hospital was a five minute run from his apartment — he could have been done hours ago if he'd just done things his own way.

Finally, after three hours of searching for Hinata and Sasuke, Naruto walked through the glass doors of the hospital. He walked up to the receptionist's desk and asked for the room numbers belonging to the two people that he wanted to visit.

The reception he got wasn't what he was expecting.

"What?" he demanded angrily. "What do you mean? Why not? They're here, aren't they?"

"I'm sorry," she told him, only sounding half apologetic, "but Hyuga-sama is still unconscious and Sasuke-sama has been forbidden from having any visitors at all."

"Fine! I can't visit Sasuke! At least let me visit…" his voice softened. "At least let me visit Hinata-chan."

_Please let it work,_ he pleaded silently. The tender-voice technique wasn't something he employed very often, but it worked best against older women — mothers and nurses and shop owners in their mid-thirties or early forties. It worked pretty well with woman in their mid to late twenties, too, and the receptionist in front of him fit that category perfectly.

The nurse blinked, then sighed, "Look, kid, I'd like to let you see her, but I'm not allowed."

"Why not?" Naruto demanded vehemently. "Why can't I visit Hinata-chan?"

The nurse opened her mouth to reply, but Naruto didn't give her the chance, "She's a patient, just like anybody else, and I know for a fact that she's not in critical condition! Why would they forbid me from visiting her, huh? Afraid I'll taint the beautiful Hinata-sama? Is that it?"

He slammed his fists down on the desk. "Well, I'm not going to sit here and take this!" he declared loudly. "I'm going to find Hinata-chan even if I have to spend the whole day just looking for—!"

"Naruto-kun," a voice called calmly, "this is a hospital. You're supposed to be quiet."

"Oh!" Naruto spun around, instantly brightening. "Kakashi-sensei! Listen, there's something I wanted to ask you…"

"Maa maa," Kakashi held up a hand, stopping whatever Naruto had been about to say. "I know what you're going to ask and I'm sorry, but I can't train you."

Naruto froze, his eyes wide and a disappointed frown on his face. His lips were parted in mid word. He felt betrayed. Just the day previous, Kakashi had carried him home piggyback-style and tucked him into bed. And now…And now…he was being pushed to the side. Was he not important enough? Was the previous day a onetime sympathy thing?

Kakashi sighed.

"Look, Naruto-kun," he started, "were things so easy, I'd love to spend the next month training you. Unfortunately, not only am I completely inept at kenjutsu, I have to prepare Sasuke for his match against Gaara."

The hurt and feeling of betrayal froze quickly into the clear, frigid anger that he was rapidly becoming familiar with. His insides felt as though they had been dipped into ice water.

"You're training Sasuke?" Naruto asked coldly. "Why the hell can't you train me?"

"I'd love to, Naruto-kun," Kakashi stated, placing his hands on Naruto shoulders. Naruto stiffened, but Kakashi seemed to ignore it. "Now that you have such a powerful ice-type ability, I could show you some really awesome Suiton Jutsu. The only problem is…your opponent is Neji, a leaf ninja. He's got a rather calm head on his shoulders and he's not too far beyond you. Win or lose, nobody's dying."

Kakashi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Gaara, though, is totally unstable. I have to prepare Sasuke for a fight against him that I'm not entirely sure he could even win. You, on the other hand, would be a pretty good match up."

The cold anger thawed a bit — it was replaced with a thrill of pleasant surprise. Kakashi did not often hand out praise to his students, not even Sasuke.

"Why?" Naruto asked, honestly curious. Kakashi thought he could take down Gaara? Boy, was that an ego boost.

"Hyôrinmaru," Kakashi stated, as if that explained everything. "If you could use him to get Gaara's sand wet, he'd have a much harder time using it against you, let alone defending — wet sand is heavier and slower than dry. That would give you an amazing advantage and I have very few doubts that you'd fail to capitalize on it."

"Then why can't you—?" Naruto began, his voice something of a whine.

"Look, Naruto-kun," Kakashi interrupted, holding out a scroll, "this is a Jutsu scroll. I wrote it myself, along with several others, last night. On it is Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu. I've found you an instructor to be my replacement and he's going to teach you chakra control. Whenever he feels you've gained enough control, he'll give you another, much more powerful Suiton Jutsu scroll."

Naruto nodded, his eyes wide. It wasn't exactly the training he'd been looking for, but even a substitute was better than no teacher at all. His control sucked horribly, he knew that, and it had become much worse after that freak from Grass had sealed off the demon fox.

Yet, he was stronger because of that freak's little trick. Had the Nine-tails not been blocked off from him, he doubted he would have found Hyôrinmaru any time soon. If there was one thing good to come of that meeting, Hyôrinmaru was it.

"Kakashi-san," Naruto looked towards the voice, only to find a man he easily recognized. Naruto's brain sputtered into motion, added one and one to get two, and a bit of dread filled him as her realized just who Kakashi's replacement was going to be.

"Ah, Ebisu-san," Kakashi nodded. "I was just explaining things to Naruto. Listen, did you get those scrolls…?"

"Hai," Ebisu nodded, adjusting his sunglasses slightly. "As per your instructions, I'll give him one Suiton scroll whenever I feel he has enough control to perform the Jutsu inside effectively."

"_He_'s going to teach me?" Naruto asked numbly, disbelief tainting his voice. "The closet pervert?"

"Oh!" Kakashi smiled at him. "So you know each other? This makes things easier!"

"Know each other?" Naruto echoed hollowly. "I beat this guy in five seconds, with two Jutsu!"

"Really?" Kakashi asked with obviously feigned interest.

"Ah, ah!" Ebisu seemed to teleport next to Naruto, clasping his hand over the boy's mouth. "He's just kidding, right, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto glared. He really wasn't fond of people touching him unbidden — too many bad memories (_Oh, Haku_, he thought mournfully).

"I may not be a great fighter," the man hissed at him, "but I'm an _elite_ tutor. Teaching is my specialty. I can teach you things that'd make Sasuke-san's head spin."

Naruto's eyes widened, then he nodded enthusiastically. Ebisu smiled disarmingly, "We'll be fine, Kakashi-san! See you later!"

Before Naruto knew what was happening, he felt something tug on him like a lasso around his waist and the hospital room vanished.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto couldn't help but stare. His eyebrow gave a twitch.

Steam rose into the air as tiny wisps of vapor, slowly disappearing into the atmosphere. Water sloshed gently against the rocks that contained it, but not one drop escaped the confines of the natural pool. Even several feet away, Naruto could feel the heat radiating from the pond. A visible haze distorted the air above it.

Despite the inviting atmosphere, Naruto had to wonder why he was there. He was supposed to be training, wasn't he? That had been the impression he'd gotten when Ebisu had promised to teach him things that would wow even Sasuke. And the first thing the elite teacher had done was make him read Kakashi's scroll.

So why were they here, standing in front of a hot spring, an onsen, next to a wall? A wall behind which he could hear many giggling girls as they bathed away their daily worries?

"Ne, Closet Pervert?" Naruto asked, frowning. He ignored Ebisu's sputtered denial and pointed one finger at the hot spring. "Why are we here?"

"The first thing we're going to do is test you, Naruto-kun," a pink-cheeked Ebisu told him. "Since you are learning Suiton Jutsu, you are going to need a source of water. What I want you to do, Naruto-kun, is produce exactly five Mizu Bunshin. You have two tries."

Nodding, Naruto stepped next to the hot spring and focused his chakra, his hands in a seal. He cried, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Around him, seven water clones sprung into existence, each an identical copy of the original. Seven, not five. Frowning, he dispersed them all, watching as they splashed back into water and made several puddles on the ground. Focusing again, he added less chakra than the first time, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Two water clones appeared this time. Naruto's frustrated frown grew as he realized just how horrible his chakra control had to be. As his two doppelgangers splashed to the ground, Ebisu walked towards him.

"Since it seems that your control is severely lacking," Ebisu said in a lecturing tone, "we'll have to rectify the problem. What you're going to be doing, Naruto-kun, is walking on water."

Naruto stared at him for a second, momentarily speechless, "…what?"

"Kakashi-san has told me that you already know the tree climbing exercise," Ebisu stated, proudly walking out onto the hot spring. "This is the next step up. Try it for yourself."

Tentatively, with Hyôrinmaru hissing instructions into his ear, Naruto channeled Chakra to his feet and walked out onto the surface of the heated pond…only to plummet straight to the bottom. Yowling painfully, Naruto jumped from the pool like a speeding rocket and landed straight up on the ground. His skin had turned lobster red.

As the burning sensation rippling across his flesh faded away, he set his sword down and mumbled an apology to the dragon for letting that happen. Steel and water didn't mix very well and though Naruto was aware that Hyôrinmaru was no ordinary blade, he didn't want to risk letting his precious weapon and companion rust. That was sword care 101, and it didn't take a genius to figure it out.

Taking off his orange jacket, Naruto channeled chakra again and took a slow step out onto the surface. It stayed and he smiled, confidently putting his other foot forward as he began to walk atop the water. On that second step, however, he once more fell straight into the water.

Screaming painfully as the water burned him, he leapt up from it and landed once more on dry land. He hissed as the cool air rubbed roughly against his sensitive skin and waited for it to turn back to its pale pink. It only took a few seconds, but during that time, Hyôrinmaru seized the opportunity to chastise him for being so hasty.

"Take it slowly," the dragon told him. "Speed will earn you nothing in the end. Patience is the driving force behind success. Remember, Naruto, _think_ first. Never take action without a measure of thought."

Forcing himself into a state of calm, Naruto focused his chakra once again and stepped out onto the water. His feet held as he walked steadily towards his temporary tutor, confident that he had this new skill down. Barely a second later, he fell into the hot water again, crying his anger and pain to the sky.

Ebisu shook his head amusedly. Naruto glared balefully at his teacher as he climbed out of the water, but Ebisu was looking elsewhere, at the fence opposite their section. Naruto looked, too, and saw immediately what had caught his teacher's notice: there was an old man with long white hair staring through a small hole in the fence, giggling like a schoolgirl all the while. There could be no doubt about what he was doing. He was peeping. Naruto saw Ebisu scowl and fix his glasses out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't know who you are," Ebisu began quietly, "BUT I WILL NOT ALLOW SUCH SHAMEFUL AND DISHONORABLE BEHAVIOUR!"

Ebisu rushed forward, his fiery indignant gaze focused on the indecent man in front of him. But the pervert simply ignored him, still giggling, and Naruto could imagine the outcome. The old man was about to get flattened. Ebisu lifted his fist and cocked it back. Naruto just sat and watched.

There was a poof of smoke and, too fast for Ebisu (and Naruto, who observed it all with numb surprise), a long tongue shot out and flung him away. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

"Be quiet," the older man said sternly, perched atop a large toad, "you don't want me to get caught, do you?"

Ebisu did not respond. He was out cold.

Naruto stared for a second, then felt anger bubbling up inside his chest and pointed furiously at the old man, "You idiot! Now what am I supposed to do?"

Ebisu might not have been the best teacher, but he was still a teacher, and Naruto was still learning stuff from him. What good did he do lying unconscious on the ground? How could Naruto get better, good enough to beat Neji, without anyone to teach him?

Naruto gestured jerkily to Ebisu, who had begun to drool stupidly, "This idiot was supposed to be supervising my training! But you knocked him out! Look! Look at what you did!"

"Tea is fine, Mommy," Ebisu said goofily. "You always make it the best."

"He was interfering with my research," the old man declared simply.

"Research?" Naruto demanded incredulously. "You mean your peeping!"

"It was research!" the old man insisted irately, gesturing wildly with his hands. His face quickly morphed into a self-satisfied grin, the sort Naruto knew people wore when they knew something he didn't, and the only sign of the old man's indignation was the twitch of his eyebrow.

"I'm a writer, you see," he said. He fished a book with a familiar orange cover out of his vest. "Like this! Understand?"

Naruto's mouth flapped soundlessly. He lifted a finger and pointed at the book in the old man's hand. "Th-that's!"

_Icha Icha Paradise!_

"Oho!" the old man crowed victoriously. "So you know this book? I guess it's become pretty famous!"

"Kn-know it?" Naruto squeaked. "That's the same dirty book Kakashi-sensei reads, you pervert! Research? You were peeping so you could write more of that book!"

Naruto's voice must have carried farther than he'd thought, because there were several horrified screams and a great commotion from behind the wooden wall the old man had been peering through— no doubt, all the girls who had been bathing were scrambling to get out and cover themselves.

The old man let out a sound like a mouse being trodden on, as though he had just been told that his entire life was a lie, and great big tears flowed down his cheeks. "Look what you've done!" he cried. "Now they all know I was peeping!"

Naruto crossed his arms. "Pervert," he stated flatly.

"I'm not a pervert!" the old man declared vehemently. "I'm a SUPER pervert!"

He jabbed his thumb at his chest proudly.

"That's not really something to be proud of," Naruto said quietly.

"But, Mommy," Ebisu mumbled into the cobblestones. "I don't want to go to school today…"

_Which reminds me_, Naruto thought. The ire in his belly ignited again and he ignored Hyôrinmaru's hissed commands to calm down. He was _not_ going to let this drop.

"But that's all beside the point!" Naruto said angrily. "That closet pervert was supposed to be training me! I mean, my chakra control's been bad enough since that snake freak in the second exam did his flaming-fingers thing, but it's not going to get any better if I don't have anyone to train me! You better take responsibility for that!"

"Snake freak?" the old man echoed curiously. He walked forward, scratching his chin with a finger thoughtfully. "What do you mean? Where did he hit you?"

"Some guy in the second exam," Naruto tersely. He eyed the old man warily. "He did this weird thing with his fingers then hit me in the stomach."

"I see," the old man said pensively, rubbing his chin. "Lift your shirt and channel some chakra. I think I have a solution."

_Yeah, right, _was Naruto's first reaction, but he paused and gave it some thought. He definitely didn't have any reason to trust the man, true, but the guy was strong — he beat Ebisu with one shot, after all. Strong enough, in fact, that he could have killed Naruto easily without a second thought. So, Naruto decided, by virtue of the fact that he was still alive, he would trust this stranger — but only a little.

"Whatever," Naruto mumbled. He lifted his shirt and scrunched up his face, summoning chakra from the bottomless well in his gut. The old man leaned down and inspected the suddenly visible seal with squinted eyes, tilting his head now and then and muttering under his breath to himself. Naruto fidgeted, a little uneasy. Who was this stranger?

"All right," the man said, straightening as his fingers began to glow. "This should do it." He thrust his fingers forward and into Naruto's stomach, pressing into the foreign swirl marks and tearing loose a breathless gasp.

"Gogyo Kain!" the old man called. After a second, he pulled his hand back to look at his work. The five-pronged seal that had overlapped the original seal faded away into nothingness. He grinned proudly. "There. I hit some pressure points to help you relax. Now try the water walking skill."

Shooting the old man a wary look (but still having no reason to distrust him), Naruto took a delicate step onto the water. When it held, he took another step, then another and he didn't fall in. Confident from his success, he walked faster and faster until he was running around the small spring. He nearly yelled excitedly when he didn't fall in at all.

The old man started to walk away, probably thinking he would slip past Naruto's notice. He had no such luck. "Hey," Naruto shouted, "don't think you're off the hook! This guy was supposed to be my teacher!"

He gestured again to Ebisu.

"You knocked him out, so now _you're_ going to have to fill that role!"

"No way!" the old man yelled back. "I, Jiraiya the Gama Sennin, don't have time to baby-sit a brat like you! Besides, you already learned what he was teaching you!"

"Nuh uh!" Naruto called back, forming a hand seal. Five Mizu Bunshin stood around him, "He was supposed to teach me some really cool Suiton Jutsu whenever my control was good enough! It was supposed to be totally kickass!"

"Fine!" Jiraiya said loudly. He sped through hand seals. "You want a Suiton Jutsu? Suiton: Suiryuudan!"

A dragon rose up from the hot spring behind Naruto, who panicked as it leered down at him. Several images flashed through his brain, of Kakashi and Zabuza squaring off over a lake, summoning dragons of water and great swirling vortexes — techniques that could wipe out an entire fleet of warships. He shook himself free of the memories and rushed to the shore, unsheathing his sword as the water dragon barreled towards him. He stabbed it forwards, into the dragon's mouth as he cried, "Sôten ni zase, Hyôrinmaru!"

The dragon froze, starting at the mouth and snout and spreading quickly to the rest of its body until it was a single solid mass of ice. Naruto twisted his katana and the dragon cracked and splintered like a broken mirror, then shattered into thousands of pieces and plopped bit by bit into the hot spring with several large splashes. Naruto sheathed his sword with a newly familiar grace as the adrenaline burst began to fade.

When his breathing had calmed back down, Naruto spun to face the old man — he called himself "Jiraiya," right? — and pointed at him furiously. "Are you insane?" he demanded loudly. "That thing could have killed me! Now you _really_ owe me!"

"Yeah, right!" Jiraiya shot back. "That thing only had enough chakra to knock you off your feet! The worst you would have gotten was a bump on that thick skull of yours and a few bruises on your ass! Stop being a drama queen!"

_Oh, _hell_ no,_ Naruto thought. _He did _not_ just call me a drama queen!_

"Says the porno writer!" he retorted. "The bowl is calling the kettle black!"

"It's pot!" the old man corrected. "The pot calling the kettle black, not the bowl!"

Naruto fought down a blush. It wasn't the first time he'd made a mistake like that.

"Yeah, well…you still owe me! You've got to train me!"

"Like hell I do!"

"You knocked out my teacher and then tried to kill me! You owe me at least two really awesome jutsu!"

"As if! Why should I train a puny little punk like you? I only train the really good guys — the kind you see in history books, who are so powerful that even the mention of their very _names_ makes people quiver in awe and fear! That's the kind of people I, Jiraiya, Sage of the Toads of Mount Myoboku, train!"

"Then there's no reason for you not to train me!" Naruto jabbed his thumb at himself. "Because I'm going to be the best Hokage ever! Even greater than the Fourth!"

"Oh, really?" Jiraiya asked with sudden interest. Naruto hesitated a little at the sudden mood change as the old man grinned. "You're going to surpass the Fourth Hokage, are you?"

"That's right!" Naruto said, though his confidence was wavering a bit. What was this old guy playing at? "I'm going to be Hokage! I'll be better than any other before, and any to come after! Because I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Well, all right, then," Jiraiya stood tall and put his hands on his hips. A superior grin was pulling at the corners of his lips. "I think I'll train you after all, kid. Congratulations, the Honorable Jiraiya-sama is now your teacher!"

Naruto blinked.

"Really?" he asked skeptically.

"Yeah," Jiraiya said, crossing his arms. "After all, as one of the Sannin, I know more about Suiton than anyone in this village — save the Hokage."

"You do?" Naruto's face split into a large grin. If this guy really knew more about Suiton than Kakashi, then he'd just hit the jackpot.

"Yeah," the old man said confidently, closing his eyes and nodding. "Now, come on. Let's take this to a more appropriate place; one with lots more water."

Grinning, Naruto pumped his fist victoriously. _"Yes!"_ he shouted to himself. He'd just landed a teacher that had beaten Ebisu with a single attack. And now this guy was going to teach him some really kickass Suiton jutsu.

Naruto took off down the street, mentally mapping out the areas he knew to have the most water. There was that pond in the one training ground, and the river, and…well, those were the only ones he knew. He wasn't exactly an expert on Konoha's geography — he'd either skipped or slept through those classes in the Academy, and D-Ranks didn't really take you that far, so…Wait.

"_Where's Ero-sennin?"_

He skidded to a halt and turned to look back at where he'd been standing a few minutes before. There, in the exact same pose, nodding proudly to himself and grinning broadly, was the man who called himself Jiraiya. Naruto blinked and cocked his head to the side curiously.

"_What's he waiting for?"_ he wondered. He cupped his hands over his mouth.

"Hey, Ero-sennin!" he called. Jiraiya froze and opened his eyes. He looked at Naruto, blinked, then looked back to where Naruto had been standing, blinked again, then looked back at Naruto. Naruto waved. "Come on, let's go!"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The roar of rushing water pounded into his ears as its sweet scent, fresh and ripe, permeated his nostrils. The grass that grew just beyond its rocky borders tickled his bare toes with every step, bending and swaying with the gentle wind that tousled his spiky hair. He grinned and the excitement of training rushed through him.

Jiraiya had directed him to a river that fed a waterfall which emptied into a rather shallow pond, one that girls seemed to enjoy cooling off in during the hotter seasons. Naruto could imagine why Jiraiya was so fond of it. All those young girls, all in their late teens and early twenties, all in nothing more than a swimsuit…It was pervert heaven. Still, the old man was going to teach him, so he wasn't going to complain…too much.

The river itself was not particularly big, but that had more to do with the season. During the late spring, summer, and autumn, it shrunk and exposed the outer edges of its rocky bed. It was only during the winter and early spring, when the short bursts of snow fell, melted, and fed it, that the river grew to its full size and pounded down with its full might.

"Right!" Jiraiya clapped his hands together. "I've already showed you the hand seals, so let's see how good you are at Suiryuudan."

"Un!" Naruto nodded, flashing through hand signs numbering in the dozens. He stopped on bird, watching as the river churned unnaturally. A beast's head began to form, sucking the water from its surroundings. "Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!"

A winding dragon leapt from the water, twisting and turning in the air before it crashed back down. The river tossed restlessly, then leveled out and returned to normal, as if nothing had even happened. Jiraiya nodded, satisfied, "Good. Good. Now, let's try it while you're walking on the river."

Nodding, Naruto took a step out onto the water and stood atop it without trouble (and it was so much easier now — whatever that Jiraiya guy had done, it certainly worked). The river around his feet rippled slightly, but showed no sign of letting him fall through. Slowly, he walked to the center, making sure that the current wouldn't push him downstream. With a great deal more concentration, he went through the hand seals again, calling, "Suiton: Suiryuudan!"

The water dragon formed in front of him much more slowly than it had the first time, its gaping maw snarling silently. It jumped from the river surface as a coiling serpentine mass and charged towards an imaginary enemy Naruto's mind's eye had conjured, swallowed its nonexistent target, then sunk back into the water and disappeared.

"Alright," the elder man muttered. Naruto was not quite satisfied. The second one had taken much longer than the first. "Again."

Naruto went through the hand seals once more, much faster than the second time. It was becoming easier, he realized, the more he practiced. The hand seals were more and more familiar each go.

The dragon rose for a third time, much faster than either the first or second attempt. With a silent roar, it dove into the river again a great distance away. The splash it caused was loud and large, throwing water up and out several feet and sending Naruto swaying as he attempted to keep his feet through the sudden wave that washed his way.

"Good," Jiraiya nodded. "Now we're ready to move on to the next thing I have to teach you: Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

Naruto grinned eagerly and had gone to Jiraiya's side before he'd even finished. Clearing his throat, Jiraiya continued in a lecturing tone Naruto had known Iruka for, "For this technique, however, you're going to need more than your normal amount of chakra. You've felt your secondary chakra, right? That's what you're going to have to use."

So Jiraiya knew about the Nine-tails, too. Naruto wasn't surprised. It seemed anymore that the only ones who _didn't_ know were kids his own age and those younger. Everyone else knew the secret — Iruka, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Ebisu, Ayame and Teuchi, and every owner of a restaurant or store.

Now, Jiraiya was telling him to use the Kyubi's chakra. He'd thought it was something else, at first — on the bridge with Haku, during the second exam with that Snake Freak — and then he'd assumed it was Hyôrinmaru. After using Hyôrinmaru, though, really _using_ him, and discovering an entirely _different_ feel, Naruto had come to the only remaining conclusion: the red chakra that had surged through him only twice before was the Nine-tails' chakra.

And after realizing that, he made the decision not to use it.

Naruto shook his head, "Sorry, Ero-sennin, but I'm not going to use Fluffy's power. If I use it like you're suggesting, then I'll become dependent on it, and my own power will grow weak. I'm not going to call on Kyubi's chakra."

"What?" Jiraiya asked incredulously, his expression surprised. "Who taught you that? It's ridiculous! Why have all that power locked away if you're not going to use it?"

And Naruto felt that anger come back, calmer, tamer, less cold, but still there. He knew that using the Kyubi's chakra made him more powerful, and he knew that it could increase his strength quite a bit. But the reminder of why he had it was with him always, and every time he was tempted to draw on it, he remembered how he had gotten the Kyubi. He remembered that his parents had sacrificed themselves to protect him from it, and that the Bijuu itself was in some way responsible for just about everything that had gone wrong in his life from the day he was born.

But more than that, he didn't want to rely on it. He didn't want to need to turn to the Nine-tails every time things got a little difficult. He didn't want to have a crutch, a cheat to make things easier — like Sasuke's Sharingan or Kiba's sense of smell. He wanted to be like Lee and earn everything he got.

"_Stand on your own two feet_," Hyôrinmaru had told him the night before. "_The instant you rely on another's power, your own power becomes paltry and insignificant. Accept help when it is offered, but hone your own strength to a razor's edge. If your own power is great, then the moment yours is joined with another's, you shall become unstoppable._"

So when he looked up into Jiraiya's eyes, his back was straight and his will was made of iron.

"You don't need it," Naruto said with an uncharacteristic coldness. "You don't need a second chakra to summon the toads, right? Why should I rely on the creature that made my life miserable to do what you can do all by yourself? I'm _not_ going to use the Kyubi's chakra."

"Alright," Jiraiya sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "If you're that serious about it, I guess we can just use your normal chakra. If we can build it up high enough, you won't need the fox's chakra."

Naruto nodded, then pasted a broad, cheery smile on his face to show that there were no hard feelings. Jiraiya scratched the back of his head quizzically, shrugged, then bit his thumb and went through hand seals, "Right. First, I'll show you how."

He thrust his palm to the ground and several chains of kanji spread over the rocks beneath his feet. There was a puff of smoke and standing beneath Jiraiya was a large toad slightly taller than the man himself. In its mouth was a scroll and the toad's tongue unrolled to drop it on the ground.

"Write your name in blood, like those written before you," Jiraiya commanded as Naruto unraveled the scroll. "The seals are boar, dog, bird, monkey, and ram. In order to summon, you must spread a little blood on the hand you used to sign your name on the scroll."

Naruto looked over the names written in blood on the large scroll, recognizing only a few of them. Jiraiya's was easy to see, written in large and fancy penmanship ("Showoff," he muttered). To the right were several unfamiliar names, each one older, more faded, and more archaic than the last. To the left of the Gama Sennin's, though, was a name that Naruto had memorized a long time ago: Namikaze Minato. It was the Fourth Hokage.

That was all the endorsement he needed. Naruto couldn't help the grin that split his face as he bit into his right thumb, going just deep enough to draw blood. Carefully, he signed his name on the scroll using that blood, then dabbed each of his fingers with it. He pressed the tips of the fingers on his right hand against the thick rice paper, knowing that they would leave an impression.

Naruto rolled to scroll back up, watching as the toad pulled it back into its mouth and disappeared. Jiraiya fell back to the ground with a soft clatter, hands on his hips as he looked at him expectantly. Nodding, Naruto bit his thumb and swiped it over his right palm, flashing through the hand seals required.

He thrust his hand down and spider web chains of kanji spread from the point of contact. There was a puff of smoke but the wind blew it away quickly. As it cleared, Jiraiya looked, with a mildly surprised expression painted across his face, as Naruto appeared from within it, riding atop a toad as tall as himself. Jiraiya scratched his chin absentmindedly. Naruto felt a quick swell of warm pride. He'd clearly exceeded Jiraiya's expectations.

A grin stretched across Jiraiya's face and he began to giggle slightly; Naruto paused and his brow furrowed worriedly. Every muscle in his body tensed. His fight-or-flight instincts kicked into hyperdrive — with good reason. The look on Jiraiya's face and the insane giggle bubbling out of his mouth belonged to a man who had just become a billionaire, and that couldn't be a good sign.

He supposed he must have done a lot better than he'd thought he had. He couldn't imagine what was so special about his summoning; the toad he sat on was only about as tall as Jiraiya himself. It wasn't like he'd summoned the Boss on his first try (though that would have been a huge accomplishment).

Naruto only relaxed when Jiraiya did, and didn't ask what had just happened. He settled instead for just pretending it hadn't happened at all. Jiraiya didn't seem like he was going to share what exactly had set him off, either, so Naruto didn't press it. He snapped the tenuous string holding the toad in place beneath him and landed deftly on his feet after it vanished, then waited for further instructions.

"Alright," Jiraiya said, still grinning broadly, "that's enough for today."

"Eh?" Naruto asked incredulously. "But I've got so much energy left! I should be training until I drop! Come on, teach me another Jutsu. A really powerful one! Like — like the strongest one you know! Doesn't matter if it's Suiton or not. Just show me your strongest technique!"

Jiraiya barked out a laugh, "My strongest technique? Kid, you're really something. I've only just started training you and you want to see my strongest technique? Bwahaha! You're a riot!"

Naruto frowned, then set his fingers into a seal. An instant later, he took on the form of a buxom blond girl with curves most men would call delicious. "Please, Jiraiya-sama?" Naruko said meekly, pushing her fingers together. On the inside, Naruto balked, but he'd pulled this act several times before. "I'd be ever so grateful."

Jiraiya let out a goofy sound somewhere between a sigh and a moan, staring rapturously, then shook himself and stood up straight. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" he said. His head was tossing back and forth so violently that Naruto considered that it might actually be spinning. "That won't work on me! I am the Great Jiraiya-sama!"

Naruto scowled again, then set his newly female fingers into another hand seal. An instant later, there were a total of twenty blonde bombshells standing nude before Jiraiya and covered only by their own strategically placed hands.

"Please, Jiraiya-sama?" they all asked at once. With practiced simultaneity, they fidgeted a little with fake uncertainty. "We'll let you...take a quick peek..."

Jiraiya's face turned beet red, and then he was cackling the most perverted laugh Naruto had ever heard. "All right!" he said with far too much excitement. "But just for you!"

Naruto grinned on the inside, and would later decide that it was incredibly creepy just how easy it was for him to seduce other men when he disguised himself as a girl.

Jiraiya sped through a set of hand seals, "Here we go, Ma and Pa! Sorry to call on you like this, but it's time to show off!"

There was a puff of smoke that obscured Jiraiya in his entirety, and Naruto and all his female clones stared with bated breath into the silence. Then —

"Jiraiya!" a croaky female voice called irately. "What's the meaning of this? I was just in the middle of trying a new recipe for my lily pad stew!"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The sun rose over the easterly trees, painting the sky in brilliant tones of red, orange, yellow, and pink. The dark, navy blue sky steadily turned to a delicate azure, decorated with puffy white clouds. The trill of morning birds lilted in the air, singing a serenade of peace to the world. Few were awake, save for those dedicated to their training, despite their questionable sanity.

"Gai-sensei!" a voice called in the distance.

"Lee!" came the answer.

Naruto shook his head in amazement. Despite losing the use of his left arm and leg, Lee was still so damn _hyper_.

"_Focus,"_ Naruto told himself calmly. He could feel Hyôrinmaru's eyes on the back of his head. _"Focus the energy. Circulate it to your hand, gathering it within the palm and fingers. Let it grow."_

Pure spirit energy spiraled up his body and flowed freely through his limbs. It rose through him, from the tips of his toes all the way up to the roots of his hair. The feeling was invigorating and he felt invincible once more, as though nothing earthly could touch him, just as he had in the Forest. It was as though he existed on a higher plane and only the gods themselves could strike him down. He breathed in and the universe was at his every beck and call.

As the energy rushed through his cells and molecules, he grasped for it, preparing to shape it for its purpose. It was thinner than chakra, ethereal and elusive, and slipped from his fingers several times, gliding over his mental palms like sand over the desert. It would not be tamed and Naruto began to feel the slight chill in the air as it took on a mind of its own. Concentrating, Naruto grabbed it and refused to let go. He imagined a long tube, and imagined that it was sucking all of the energy up into it.

It stuck this time and he opened his shining eyes, calmly aiming his hand at a tree. With but a slight push, the energy rushed up his imaginary tube and gathered as he told it to in the palm of his hand. Tonelessly, he said, "Hadô no Sanjuusan: Sôkatsui." (Path of Destruction Thirty-three: Blue Fire, Crash Down)

A violent discharge was the only warning that Naruto had before the ball of blue power leapt from his hand, soaring like a flash of azure towards its target. The poor tree had no chance and neither did the six trees beside it or the dozen trees behind it. All nineteen trees were incinerated by the blast — only a collection of scattered ashes remained.

"Wow," Naruto grinned, looking down at his normal fingers excitedly. There was the faintest hint of smoke wafting off them. "That was amazing! And it was only number thirty-three!"

Naruto grasped at the energy again, forming it in the tip of his right index finger, and said, "Now for number four!"

The power gathered again, arcing over his body and through his arm, converging at his fingertip. He continued to push it towards that one point, waiting for the right amount to have gathered. He waited as it festered and grew and his finger began to glow brightly, sparking as if it knew its purpose. Finally, as the power reached an apex, he called, "Hadô no Yon: Byakurai." (Path of Destruction Four: White Lightning)

A bolt of white lightning leapt from his finger and lashed out at amazing speed, almost faster than he could see. It struck the tree he had been pointing at, blowing a wide hole straight through its large and thick trunk. Several trees behind, nearly a dozen by his count, suffered the same fate, creaking dangerously as their support faltered. With a crash, they all fell to the earth, never to bloom again.

"Do you see, Naruto-kun?" Hyôrinmaru asked, locking gazes with him. "The power of Reiryoku?"

"Yeah," he said, awe decorating his voice, "it's awesome! You sure do know quite a bit about this kind of stuff, Hyôrinmaru! At this rate, I'll be Hokage before I know it!"

"Indeed," the dragon commented amusedly. It turned its head away. "That's enough practice for now. Let's move on. Have you finished your little project?"

"I'm close," Naruto said, scratching his head sheepishly. "I only saw that Ero-Sennin's Mode-thingy once, though, so I'm still trying to figure a couple things out. It's all really confusing."

"I must congratulate you," Hyôrinmaru said, his voice filled with paternal praise. "This idea was quite crafty and cunning. You have done well."

"Thanks," Naruto laughed happily. "Ero-Sennin said something about Nature Chakra, right? But I can't find anything like that, no matter how hard I look. So, I figure, if I can't find it — I'll keep looking, I promise — then I'll just have to use something else. Now, though, I kinda have to figure out _what_ else I could use…"

Hyôrinmaru nodded, "To come up with such a thing after seeing it only once is quite admirable. I have no doubt that you will succeed."

Somehow, though he wasn't sure how, Naruto could tell that the dragon was looking at him out of the corner of its eye, "When you do, I have quite an interesting skill to teach you."

A shiver of anticipation traveled down Naruto's spine, raising tiny bumps of gooseflesh all over his arms. He wasn't sure if the shiver of anticipation was one of eagerness or if it was an omen. But there was no mistaking the icy block of dread that had dropped into his stomach.

Hyôrinmaru rarely called something interesting. He knew things that no ordinary creature could know. He saw things that Naruto himself missed. He had an intelligence that put even Kakashi and Shikamaru to shame. There were few things that he could possibly consider interesting — there were only curiosities, fleeting questions that took little effort to answer.

If it was a technique he was teaching Naruto, he always made it seem insignificant to him, but very important to Naruto. He used all sorts of words and phrases to entice him into learning, but interesting had never been one of them. If he was using it to describe something, that something had to be beyond awesome.

Naruto called Sasuke's fire Jutsu cool. Hyôrinmaru informed him that there were much, much cooler techniques out there. Naruto called Rock Lee's speed and Taijutsu awesome. Hyôrinmaru chastised him for admiring the boy's abilities when he could be working towards acquiring them for himself. Naruto thought Kakashi was one of the best. Hyôrinmaru assured him that there were better.

So for Hyôrinmaru to call something interesting, it had to be beyond powerful. It had to be even more powerful than the destruction spells the dragon was teaching him to use. It had to be stronger than Kakashi's signature move.

Now if only he could decide whether or not learning the technique itself would kill him.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto stood shakily, panting as sweat rolled down his cheeks and nose and into his blue eyes. His vision was starting to blur. The water around him churned as yet another dragon dissolved into it, splashing the riverbanks harshly. He fought to stay atop the surface as the sway of the resulting wave compromised his footing.

"Again!" came the command and Naruto obeyed. He flashed through the hand seals, stopping on bird and watching as the water in front of him swirled and rose to form a dragon. It seemed to roar as it jumped forwards at an invisible target. It crashed back into the river and sent the surface churning. He struggled to stay atop.

After his success at Summoning, Jiraiya had decided that it would be best to hammer out his skills in Suiton by making him practice till he dropped. Along with Suiryuudan, the old man had taught him Daibakufu no Jutsu, Bakusui Shouha, and Suijinheki and had him practice them alongside it. The old man was determined to make him a Suiton master before the Chûnin Exam Finals. For the three weeks he'd been training under the elder shinobi, he'd become quite proficient in water style techniques. He had even learned to cut the longest of seal chains down to a short, swift series. Suiryuudan, which was normally a whopping sixty-four hand seals, now required only sixteen.

Jiraiya really knew his stuff, that's for sure.

But Jiraiya wasn't the only one training him in Jutsu. After Naruto had perfected several of the spells he'd been learning, Hyôrinmaru had started to have Naruto recreate Jutsu he'd seen before. Specifically, he had Naruto recreate techniques that Haku had used during their battle on the bridge.

So far, he'd managed to teach himself Haku's Sensatsu Suisho, something he'd only caught a glimpse of during the fake hunter ninja's skirmish with Sasuke, and how to perform certain Jutsu using one-handed seals. Unfortunately, while Hyôton wasn't something that only Haku could use, the Makyou Hyôshyou was a bloodline limit related skill. He couldn't replicate it beyond forming the mirrors.

Hyôrinmaru had also been trying to get Naruto to learn to form his chakra into chains. At first, Naruto hadn't really wanted to — what the hell was he going to do with chakra chains? — but after Hyôrinmaru explained exactly what he could do with them, he also explained that they were a technique Naruto's mother had used to defend him from the Nine-tails.

He might as well have told Naruto that he would be sworn in as Hokage for knowing how to make chakra chains. After that, he'd spent nearly three whole days focusing entirely upon learning to form them (though he'd only managed to make one so far) — but not before he asked Hyôrinmaru how he could possibly know that Naruto's mother had used her chakra to make chains. The only answer he'd gotten was a cryptic statement about how Hyôrinmaru's memory was much longer and clearer than his.

That's not to say that training was _all_ Naruto did. He had visited Hinata several times since the Preliminaries, more often than not stopping by the Yamanaka shop to buy some flowers for her. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he took a secret pleasure in seeing her blush every time he came in her room with a bouquet of Azaleas and red and white Carnations in his hands (though Ino giggled every time she arranged them for him, and had yet to explain what they actually symbolized; whenever he tried to ask Hinata, she'd go red as a cherry and refuse to say).

He'd tried to visit Sasuke once, only to find that his bed was completely empty, as if no one had ever slept in it. He'd been confused for a second, wondering if maybe Orochimaru had stolen the boy in his sleep, before he'd taken a better look at the scene of the supposed crime. There was no sign of a struggle and no sign of more than one person being involved in his rival's escape. He'd nearly grinned. Sasuke had left on his own.

"Alright," Jiraiya called, halting his training as his fingers moved together almost on reflex, "that's enough. I'd say you've got this down pretty well. You've got five days until the Finals. Take that time to rest."

Nodding, Naruto staggered over to the riverbank, collapsing onto his back as soon as his feet hit dry land. His breath came out in short pants and his eyelids drooped as the exhaustion set in. Jiraiya chuckled slightly — Naruto imagined Jiraiya must have been amused to find that Naruto actually had limits. He lifted his arms so he could reach out and wring his teacher's neck, but they had barely made it an inch off the ground before they flopped back down bonelessly.

"I'll be back in half an hour," Jiraiya told him, kneeling next to Naruto's head. "If you're still lying here then, I'll take you home myself."

In a puff of smoke, the man disappeared. Naruto sighed, rolling over onto his back to look up at the bright afternoon sky. He sighed again as his breathing began to even out and his body slowly regenerated the chakra he'd used up during his training. It had been intense, more so than any other training he'd ever done.

"You have progressed well," a familiar voice told him as a smooth, reptilian body lied down next to his. "You've even almost finished that project of yours. Most impressive."

"I suppose," Naruto sighed again. "I just feel like there's something…missing. Like there's something more I need to learn. Something more that can make me stronger. And…and once I find what's missing, I can complete it. Once I find what's missing, I'll know what I have to do to finish my project. That's the feeling I get."

The dragon lifted its head to look at him, a serious gleam in its eyes, "I guess it's time, then. Your instinct is pushing you forward."

Naruto arched his eyebrow, "What? Time for what? What's it time for? What instinct?"

"You'd best rest up," the dragon evaded his question. "Come back here tomorrow and manifest me into this world. I'm going to teach you that technique I promised."

The dragon looked away, "Do not underestimate it. Normally, it takes years of training to achieve it and years more before it's been mastered sufficiently for use in battle, but…" The dragon gave its frightening parody of a grin. "We've never been normal, have we?"

Once more, the block of icy dread dropped into Naruto's stomach and settled there uncomfortably. Yeah, he was in deep shit.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The water was far more turbulent than it had been before and its roar pounded against his ears. He might have something to do with that, he realized, considering how many Suiton Jutsu he'd used here recently. The long grass rose over the sides of his sandals, tickling the callused pads of his toes. The tangy scent of the water wafting from the roaring river stung his nostrils.

He stepped carefully, almost hesitantly, over the hard stones, gathering his wits and courage about him. He was stepping into the situation blind. He didn't know what was going to happen, but his gut feeling told him it wasn't something good. It was supposed to be a new technique, but he could not help but feel as though he had just taken the first step into the gates of Hell.

Naruto closed his eyes and reached inside himself, ignoring the well of chakra that stormed up to meet him and diving further in, towards his inner world. He was stopped briefly by a swell of red chakra that offered itself up, vicious and tempting and powerful, but he shoved that aside as well. He grasped at the presence that was Hyôrinmaru, wrapping intangible fingers around the dragon's body, and pulled with all of his strength up and out.

There was a large puff of smoke as the sensation of vertigo flooded Naruto and he shot up into the air. His feet stood atop something hard yet soft and smooth yet scaly as a sea of icy azure invaded his vision. He felt his eyes widen to saucers as he realized the truth of the situation. He was standing atop a huge Hyôrinmaru, one at least a hundred times bigger than the one he knew.

"So, you managed," the voice was deeper, but it was still familiar. "Always have I appeared before you, yet this one time you had to force me, you succeeded. I wonder, however, if you can manage the task I have set for you. I wonder if your instinct is strong enough."

"Task?" Naruto asked confusedly. "What's this task?"

"As you know, by calling out the correct command along with my name, you can merge your power with mine," the dragon told him. "However, there is a level of power beyond that where you and I merge our powers much further. To accomplish this task, you must defeat me and claim my power for your own. You must subdue me."

"What?" Naruto shouted in alarm. "Defeat you? How?"

"Don't worry, child," Hyôrinmaru placated, chuckling amusedly, "this is not direct combat. All you must do to force my subjugation is overcome one challenge I will set for you."

"Challenge?" Naruto asked tentatively, slightly hesitant. He firmed his resolve from rubber to iron. "Okay. What's this challenge?"

"You have four days left before your finals," the dragon said calmly. "To achieve the next level of power, you must stay atop me for the next seventy-two hours straight. Do you accept this challenge?"

"Of course!" Naruto exclaimed, standing shakily. "This is only one step on the road to Hokage! If I can accomplish this, I'll be that much closer to my dream!"

"So be it," the dragon said solemnly.

With a jerk, Hyôrinmaru threw himself to the ground and thrashed about in the river, and Naruto's challenge began.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

"Jiraiya-sama is the one training you?" Hinata squeaked.

"He's not that great," Naruto said, shrugging. "I mean, sure, he knows his stuff, and yeah, I've learned a lot from him, but he's such a pervert! He even admitted to it!" Naruto deepened his voice and did his best Jiraiya impression. "I'm no ordinary pervert! I'm a SUPER Pervert! Gahahahaha!"

Hinata's lips twitched and she smiled but didn't quite laugh.

"So, what are you still doing here, anyway?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I thought they'd have released you by now. They've held you almost a month! I'd die if I had to eat hospital food that long!" He mimed gagging and dying and she smiled again, and this time, a short, breathy laugh even slipped past her lips.

But it was over too soon and she was staring down at her hands, fiddling with her fingers.

"Th-the doctors," she began quietly. "Th-they said, um, that th-they just w-wanted to make s-sure I was all right. Um, I mean, a-after what happened. I-I did almost..."

She trailed off. Naruto slumped forward in his chair and looked away. He didn't want her to see his scowl. "Neji," he said lowly.

"P-Please don't hurt him too badly!" Hinata burst out suddenly. Naruto turned to her with wide, bewildered eyes, and she blushed and looked down again, playing with her fingers nervously. "I-it's just...N-Neji-niisan...He's suffering...more than m-me. N-Neji-n-niisan is suffering b-because of our clan, and I..."

"Hinata-chan," Naruto said with a sad smile, "you're too nice."

Her face flushed scarlet. "I-I'm not, I just..."

"No, I get it," he told her. "You're a really good person, Hinata-chan."

She blushed again and stole a sad glance at him when she thought he wasn't looking, and when she spoke again, it was whispered so quietly that he almost thought he'd imagined it.

"You are, too...Naruto-kun..."

He didn't have the chance to respond because that's when he felt it — an ominous killing intent, large enough to rival even that freak in the second exam. This particular intent — reiatsu, Hyôrinmaru had explained, the manifestation of the spiritual energy into a tangible presence — he had only felt once before, during the preliminaries.

"Sorry, Hinata-chan, gotta go!" he said quickly, leaning down to peck her on the cheek (and if he'd been thinking about it, he would have realized that was the first time he'd kissed her). He was out the door and dashing down the hall before she could even raise her hand to wave goodbye.

As he rounded the corner, another door burst open and Shikamaru was suddenly running beside him. "He's probably facing away from the door. I'll bind him with my Kagemane no Jutsu," Shikamaru said between breaths. "If things get hairy, I'm counting on you to kick his ass, all right?"

"Got it!"

They skidded to a halt at the door to Lee's room and Shikamaru stood in front of it with Naruto to the side. Shikamaru took a breath, turned until his back faced the door, then nodded. Naruto pushed the door open as silently as he could as Shikamaru swept through hand seals — Naruto barely got his hand out of the way as Shikamaru's shadow took on a life of its own and rushed into the room and out of his line of sight.

A moment later, Shikamaru grunted and let his hands drop, "Kagemane no Jutsu: success."

Naruto took that as his cue and tore into the room, decking Gaara as hard as he could. Gaara slid backwards across the floor, but he hadn't even been lifted off the tiles, despite the strength put behind Naruto's fist. As his head rose to look at them, Naruto saw small pieces of his sand armor flaking off of his cheek.

Shikamaru, who had turned around (and forced Gaara to turn as well, it seemed), rubbed his cheek tenderly, "Ow! Damn it, Naruto, I feel what he feels, remember?"

"What are you doing?" Naruto demanded angrily, ignoring Shikamaru.

"To release so much killing intent," Shikamaru frowned seriously and dropped into the most solemn expression Naruto had ever seen on him. "Why are you trying to kill Lee-san? Do you have some kind of grudge?"

"No," Gaara said in his deep monotone. "I do not. It's not something that complicated. I'm going to kill him just because I want to."

"Oh yeah?" said Shikamaru, but even Naruto could tell that the confidence in his voice was fake. "Well, we're not going to let you do that. I mean, hey, you're strong, but we were holding back in the prelims, too. Right now, two against one, you don't stand a chance."

"You get in my way and you are dead," Gaara said calmly. There was no hesitation. He'd said it as calmly as one might declare that the sky was blue.

"I'd like to see you try!" Naruto shouted, grasping the azure clothed hilt of his sword.

"Naruto," Shikamaru hissed at him. "Shut up! This guy's a monster!"

"So?" Naruto said. His grin was confident, but mirthless and bitter. "I've got a _real_ monster in me! This guy…he's nothing."

"A real monster, you say?" Gaara's attention was now focused entirely on Naruto. "Then I am the same. I came into this world by taking the life of the woman I would have called my mother. My father created me in order to be Suna's ultimate weapon, and bound the spirit of the Ichibi no Shukaku, the demon sealed in a teakettle, inside me. I was born a monster."

"So your father sealed a demon into you before you were born," Shikamaru smiled grimly. "What a twisted way to show love."

"Love?" Gaara echoed flatly. "Don't measure me by your pathetic standards. Love and family have no meaning to me. My relatives are nothing but lumps of meat connected to me by blood and hatred."

He stared out at them with one of the most intense pairs of eyes Naruto had ever seen. "I was spoiled and allowed to do whatever I pleased. I was taught the secrets of ninjutsu. I thought that was love." His face split into a manic grin. "But starting around the time when I turned six, my father tried countless times to assassinate me."

"Wait," Shikamaru said. Naruto imagined the tone of his voice was the closest Shikamaru would ever come to scratching his head in confusion. "I thought you said you were spoiled?"

"A being too strong can become an existence of fear," Gaara didn't really specify if that was his answer or if he was just continuing his story. "Everyone hated me and I found myself wondering why I went on with life. Why, then, do I exist? Why do I live? I could find no answer. But everyone needs a reason to live, or else it's the same as being dead."

Naruto took a step back, staring wide-eyed at Gaara. Every word resonated inside him; it was like looking in a mirror that had been cracked. The being that looked back at him was himself, but broken and twisted and warped. And looking at Gaara, he got that same feeling. This person standing in front of him…If it had not been for Iruka, who had first shown him affection, and then Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi, who became his teammates and, eventually, his friends, he would probably have turned out just like Gaara.

"Finally, I came to this conclusion," Gaara said. "'I exist to kill everyone but myself.' As long as there are people for me to kill, I will not vanish."

"The Hell?" Shikamaru interjected incredulously.

"Now," sand rose, gushing towards Naruto and Shikamaru. It was fast, but to Naruto, it seemed to be moving in slow motion. "Let me feel _alive—!_"

Naruto had already drawn Hyôrinmaru halfway out of his sheath, tensed and ready to fight, when the sand suddenly fell to the floor, limp and lifeless. Gaara was staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at something just above Naruto's right shoulder, then doubled over, clenching his head and screaming the most bone-chilling blood-curdling agonized scream Naruto had ever heard. The sand on the floor twisted and writhed in a sick sort of dance, as though it too was in pain.

When the scream had finally ended, Gaara took slow, shaky steps back towards the window, panting, doubled over, and hugging himself as he trembled uncontrollably. Every step seemed to be a struggle, though he was at least standing mostly straight by the time he reached the window. He was still trembling every now and then, however, and his breaths had not quite evened out when he moved to leap from the room.

"Regardless," he turned before he left, his right eye shut and his breathing labored. "I will kill you guys."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The crowd roared in excitement, and their eagerness to see the Chûnin hopefuls tear into one another was transparent. The volume in the arena was deafening and the Finals hadn't even started. Several people were making bets and odds continued to change and twist. Naruto imagined a lot of people were betting against him. Many nobles from lands far and wide sat in the stands, patiently awaiting their entertainment.

The Hokage sat up in his private box with the Kazekage from the Land of Wind, watching the entire proceedings with a neutral expression on his face. Several guards were stationed around him protectively, each standing at attention with a serious expression. Likewise, the Kazekage had many guards as well.

The senbon between Shiranui Genma's lips twitched incessantly as he looked over the competitors and frowned. Naruto figured he was probably sizing them all up, thinking about who would beat who or who would cause the most trouble during the fights. His eyes stopped at Naruto several times, and stayed there for a minute or two at a time. He would shift a little uncomfortably. Naruto, who had started paying close attention to their new proctor when he'd realized the man was most interested in him, had yet to puzzle out Shiranui Gemna's exact reason for focusing so much on him, especially when the most interesting of the competitors was the one who was still missing.

There was actually an open spot that the gathered genin had seemed to silently agree belonged to Sasuke — well, in so much that no one had moved to fill the person-wide gap in their line. Naruto wasn't sure what to make of it; Shikamaru and Temari had left a space between them big enough for one person to stand in, but maybe it wasn't for Sasuke at all. Maybe they just didn't like each other very much. Naruto didn't know, but decided it wasn't any of his business anyway.

As he stood there, though, waiting a little impatiently for everything to start, he was immensely glad he had started wearing his new clothes. He missed the orange a bit, but the short-sleeved, high-collared, zippered black vest he wore now was enough to keep him warm without cooking him from the inside out. The elbow-length fishnet mesh would, he hoped, make up for the vest's rather miniscule protective properties, and with the sun beating down on him, he was glad that he'd chosen a simple mesh shirt instead of something fuller or with longer sleeves.

The pants, too, lacked any orange and were completely black (a fact that he bemoaned every time he looked in the mirror). Naruto had begged Hyôrinmaru to let him wear orange, but Hyôrinmaru stood firm. He was determined to make Naruto into a proper ninja, it seemed, and had only relented on a single article of clothing. The sash that wrapped over his right shoulder, across his chest and stomach, and over his left hip was orange, and held Naruto's sword slung across his back.

But more than just his clothing had changed in the past month. Naruto did not stop growing just because he was training, and his hair had grown much longer than it had been during the Forest of Death and the Preliminaries. He'd considered cutting it, but every time he'd gone out to eat, he'd heard several people remarking on how incredible it was: _he looked just like the Fourth_.

So he'd kept it long and only trimmed the left side a little bit. It made his hair look uneven, but it also distinguished him from the Fourth while maintaining the connection. Looking like the Fourth Hokage, wearing a similar hair style, made him feel as though he understood the man who had sealed the Kyubi inside him. It made him feel as though the Fourth had chosen him as his successor.

"_Sasuke still isn't here, yet,"_ Naruto thought as he stared anxiously down at the empty spot in their line. He fidgeted uneasily. _"What if he shows up late? I mean, Kakashi-sensei __**is **__the one training him."_

He raised his hand.

"Hey, Mr. Examiner," he called. Genma blinked and appeared to pull himself out of a reverie, like a man pulling his soul back into his body.

"Yeah?" Genma grunted. The combat needle in his mouth twitched dangerously. Naruto briefly thought that he'd wind up swallowing that senbon if he wasn't careful.

"What happens if Sasuke's not here in time for his match?" he asked.

"Well," Genma's senbon twitched as he spoke, which Naruto again thought was very dangerous, "if he's not here by the time his match is scheduled to begin, he'll lose by default and be disqualified."

Naruto frowned and stuffed his hands in his pockets, glancing surreptitiously at the large double doors through which he had walked to reach the stadium. It was uncharacteristic of Sasuke to be so late, and there was no way he'd miss the Chunin Exams. Maybe something actually _had_ happened to him.

He had no more time to dwell on it, however, for at that moment, the Hokage started to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, and the entire stadium fell into a whispered hush, "thank you for coming to Konohagakure no Sato's Chunin Selection Exam. At this time, we will begin the main matches with the eight that have passed the preliminaries. Please enjoy yourselves."

He stepped back and took his seat again and the entire crowd erupted into applause and excited chatter. Genma glanced back at the Kage stands, then turned to face them again. "There are some things I need to say before the matches," he said simply. "Firstly, Dosu Kinuta-san is no longer available, so he was disqualified. The last match of the first round is now Temari-san versus Nara Shikamaru-san. None of the other matches, nor the order in which they will proceed, were affected.

"Secondly," he continued, "although the landscape is different, the same rules apply as in the preliminaries: there are no rules. The match will only end when someone dies or gives up, or when I decide that the match is over. In that case, I will stop the match, and it's over — no arguments. Understood?"

No one moved.

"Good," Genma said, "then it's time to begin the Chunin Selection Exam Finals. The first match is Hyuuga Neji-san versus Uzumaki Naruto-san. If everyone else would proceed to the stands, we can begin."

There was a pause, as though they were waiting for him to say something else, and when he didn't, the other Genin left. Naruto and Neji were the only ones standing in the arena. Genma nodded, "Alright."

He stepped up between the two boys, glancing at each of them for a few seconds, "You guys are up first, so make sure to put on a good show."

Naruto's hands clenched into fists. _"Mom, Dad, Hinata-chan…Watch me."_

Genma made a motion with is hand, "Begin!"

Neji sneered at Naruto, dropping into the stance of the Hyuga's famous Juken, "I'll enjoy watching you fall to pieces when you discover reality."

Naruto scowled. His right hand reached up to the hilt of his sword, "I'm ten times stronger than I was during the preliminaries."

The explanation Hyôrinmaru had given him (ironically, only _after_ he'd completed the challenge) was still fresh in his mind. Bankai, the power that increased his strength tenfold, his secret weapon.

_"Do not unleash it lightly,"_ Hyôrinmaru had said. _"The difference of raw power between the initial release, your Shikai, and a Bankai is like the gap between the Earth and Moon. A Bankai has the power to reshape the landscape with its attacks. To use it when your friends and allies are near is to risk killing both your enemy and them."_

Neji's upper lip curled and the veins around his eyes bulged as the Byakugan activated, "Ten times nothing is still nothing. You were fated to lose the moment I was chosen as your opponent."

"You say that now," Naruto said, his sword's sheath dissolving as he pulled out Hyôrinmaru. He dashed for his enemy, "try saying it again after I've beaten you!"

Neji pulled out a kunai and blocked the first strike with it. The look of surprise on his face gave him away, and it was clear from the way his kunai and hands shook that he was struggling to maintain his block. Naruto felt the now-familiar cool calm wash over him, and the world was brighter and clearer as his cold anger honed his focus.

"_This guy hurt Hinata-chan,"_ he reminded himself.

"The fight's just started and I already have two advantages," Naruto told Neji, bringing his left hand up in a seal. "The first is the water vapor in the air. The second is that I've occupied one of your hands, preventing you from using Jutsu."

Slowly, the water in the air began to condense into several vague forms that slightly resembled senbon. They formed a sort of cage around Neji, surrounding him from all sides in a death trap. Calmly, Naruto named his technique, "Sensatsu Suisho."

The water needles rushed in and embedded themselves deeply in Neji's body, and Neji looked up at him for a moment, his expression clouded with pain, before he vanished with a blast of smoke. In his place was a heavily skewered log.

"_Transparent," _Hyôrinmaru hissed in the back of his head.

Naruto twisted, bring his left arm up to block near his shoulder. A glowing palm soared past him, mere inches from his face, but Naruto didn't even flinch. The inside of Neji's elbow pressed lightly against his forearm. A smirk curled on Naruto's lips, "Try again, idiot!"

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as four glowing fingers sunk into his back painfully, not enough to break the skin but enough to feel as though they had. Foreign chakra flooded his body, threatening to shut down his kidneys. Then, with a splash of liquid, Naruto fell apart into a shallow puddle of thick water.

Neji's own eyes went wide, and Naruto tallied another point for himself as he formed ten more water clones. As they all rushed forward to flank Neji, Naruto lifted Hyôrinmaru into the air and spoke the command phrase, "Sôten ni zase, Hyôrinmaru!"

The sky above them darkened as Neji tore apart the first three clones with only a little effort. Naruto was a little irked when another two fell victim a moment later, but reminded himself as he swung down that Mizu Bunshin were only a tenth as strong as the one who made them. If Sasuke, nearly two months previous, could defeat ten of Zabuza's clones, then Neji could beat ten of Naruto's.

Neji jumped to the side, dodging away from the ice dragon that soared towards him with gleaming red eyes. It twisted to follow him, but crashed into the ground and surged up to form a curved, snake-like wall of jagged ice. Little more than a month ago, Naruto would have hesitated, but he was already moving forward as Neji dismantled three more water clones and tossed a fourth into the last one.

Then, with an unerring skill, Neji ducked under Naruto's horizontal swing, letting Hyôrinmaru pass harmlessly through the air above him, and shot his own hand forward to deliver what would surely have been a crippling blow.

But Naruto was already behind him, and he watched as Neji's fingers passed through empty air, too far along to stop. He lashed out with his foot into Neji's lower back, making sure to pull his punches only enough that he didn't do permanent damage. As Neji went flying, tumbling along the ground to a halt at the base of the ice wall, Naruto reminded himself that his goal wasn't to kill Neji, nor to cripple him.

It was to humiliate him.

That was Naruto's goal. More than proving himself ready to be a Chunin, more than proving that he wasn't a loser, more than anything else right then and there, his goal was to get revenge for what Neji had done to Hinata by humiliating him in front of the Hokage and the hundreds of nobles and lords in attendance. He, a loser who had barely graduated the Academy, would humiliate Hyuuga Neji, a lauded prodigy and the Rookie of the Year of the class before Naruto's.

Neji was slow to stand, and Naruto imagined he might have done more damage than he'd intended to, but despite his difficulty, Neji did stand straight and did not seem to have much trouble but for the pain. That was fine — pain was fleeting and temporary.

"You called me a loser," Naruto said calmly. He was already finishing a set of hand seals as he walked. "You called Hinata-chan a loser. But, Neji," he stopped, both his feet and his fingers, and the wall behind Neji shuddered and shook, "this loser is kicking your ass."

The wall surged outwards, no longer ice, but water, and consumed Neji as it rushed to fill the arena. When it came upon Naruto, it did not sweep him off his feet, but rather surged under them, as though the spot where he was standing was the eye of a great storm. There was a roar of awe and excitement from the crowd, and though he shoved it out of the way to focus on his fight, Naruto could not help the brief swell of pride in his belly.

"Bakusui Shouha." (Exploding Water Colliding Wave)

When the wave had calmed and stilled, it settled atop the ground — not too deep; it only reached to Naruto's ankles. Neji was huddled on all fours, choking and gasping and spitting up the water that had found its way into his lungs. Naruto waited. He could end it, right then and there, but he wouldn't. He would only finish it when Neji couldn't go on, when he was so drained and beaten that he couldn't even form a regular Bunshin.

As Neji stood again, Naruto swept through more hand seals. The water beneath his feet and around the stadium swirled and converged and rose as a giant pillar, forming and shaping itself into the likeness of a serpentine dragon. The dragon opened its maw in a silent roar and leapt upwards, then pounded down towards Neji.

"Suiryuudan."

Neji's face twisted into an angry scowl, a snarl that contorted his features into something grotesque and ugly. He gathered himself, hunched over, and began to spin, and around him formed a dome of brilliant white chakra that withstood the entirety of the water dragon. Naruto watched, wide-eyed, and his hands dropped to his sides.

There was a roar from the crowd — "Impossible!" someone shouted — and when it was all over, Neji stood at the center of a small crater, panting as the ground around him smoked. He lifted his intense white eyes to stare into Naruto's, and when he spoke, it was filled with nearly as much venom as he had used against Hinata. "Kaiten."

He stood straight, and then, though it took visible effort, moved back into his ready stance.

"This is the difference," he said, "between our fates. This is the gap between our powers that you cannot hope to bridge. Someone like you…like Hinata-_sama_…you have no hope. You will amount to nothing, because that is your place. You will never be Hokage because _destiny_ _has decreed it so_. To imagine otherwise, to encourage fruitless hopes in Hinata-sama, hopes that can never come true, is futile and arrogant. You will fail, Uzumaki Naruto, just as Hinata-sama has failed, because you are a loser, and a loser will _always_ be a loser."

Naruto's free hand clenched into a fist and his grip on his sword tightened. The cold rage in his gut erupted into a boil and he swept through more hand seals — "Makyô Hyôshô!" (Ice Crystal Demon Mirrors)

The water surged upwards again and solidified into a cage of ice mirrors around Neji, larger and thicker than Haku's had ever been. Someone in the audience — Sakura, Naruto realized absently — called his name. She must have recognized the technique, but Naruto was well aware he couldn't use it like Haku could. He swept through even more hand seals. No, he couldn't use it the way Haku had, but that didn't mean it was a useless technique.

"Sensatsu Hyôshô," Naruto growled. The mirrors shattered into thousands of pieces, and the shards compacted themselves into a cage of ice needles larger and more terrifying than the water needles in the beginning of the match. "Daikeimusho!"

As the needles rushed him, however, Neji spun again, and they were deflected. Naruto growled and swung his sword. A dragon of liquid ice leapt forward, but it too was deflected. Naruto swung again, but the second dragon had no more luck than the first. The boiling anger became molten, there was a flash of something red and vicious inside him, and he lifted his sword, ready to unleash his full power and _crush_ his opponent —

"_Naruto!"_ a voice in the back of his mind called urgently. The lava-like fury simmered to a low boil. The red _something_ vanished like so much vapor. That interruption was all he needed. He forced himself to calm. Neji's spin stopped, and he was heaving from the effort it must have taken to maintain his defense. The thrill of satisfaction in Naruto's gut only served to sooth his anger further.

"Hinata-chan told me all about this Branch and Main family stuff," he told Neji calmly. "About how the Branch family is branded with a seal that leaves them at the Main family's beck and call. Is that why you keep going on about destiny? Because you have to walk around with a seal that marks you as different?" He flung his hand to the side. "Grow up! You think you're the only one who's been marked since before he could remember? You think your life is so horrible that there can't possibly be someone out there who's had it worse than you?"

He jabbed his finger in Neji's direction. "Hinata's had to suffer every day! Constantly put down, told she's worthless, by _her own damn father_! Her entire family always telling her that she'll never amount to anything, that's she's weak, a failure!" He snarled at Neji, whose face was drawn into a tight, expressionless mask. "But she's not! Just because she can't live up to you guys and your expectations doesn't mean you get to tell her she's worthless! If you Hyuga would stop being so obsessed with yourselves and your reputations, then you could see that Hinata's the best out of all of you!"

"Why do you care so much?" Neji asked evenly. "What difference does it make to you?"

"Because," Naruto said lowly. His voice trembled with emotion and solemnity. "I've been called a failure all my life."

Naruto vanished and the crowd gasped as a whole. He had barely gone before he was standing behind Neji, facing away. A long, silvery chain went from the pommel of his sword to Neji's hands and bound his wrists tightly. A second chain, phantasmal and blue, wrapped around Neji's arms and bound them to his sides. It started at Naruto's back and seemed to come from inside his body.

"Neji," Naruto declared quietly, "it's over."

Neji wriggled a little and tried to spin, but Naruto tightened the hold his chains had and didn't let him. Still, Neji struggled, but even Naruto could tell that he didn't have the necessary strength to seriously attempt freeing himself.

There was a resigned sigh.

"Mr. Examiner," Neji called. "I must forfeit."

"Winner," Genma called. The chains binding Neji loosened, and Naruto dispelled both the single chakra chain and his shikai, "Uzumaki Naruto!"

The arena was silent for a moment, as though the spectators had trouble believing the outcome of the spectacular battle. Naruto turned to see them all staring at him and shifted uncomfortably under their gaze, waiting hesitantly for their reaction. Then, he heard a noise, a noise he hadn't thought he'd hear from a crowd of Konoha villagers and shinobi.

It started out low and soft, as though the crowd didn't know how to react to his victory, then it grew. It grew louder and louder as more people joined in, some standing to make themselves known. The cheer rose in volume steadily, growing and growing until it became a deafening roar. People were getting to their feet and screaming his name. They cheered…for him.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and gave them the biggest, goofiest grin he'd ever worn. His eyes searched the crowd, looking at each and every person calling out excitedly, until he found one particular person that made his heart soar.

There, in the crowd, sitting next to her teammate Kiba, was Hyuga Hinata. It was difficult to see from the distance, but as she clasped her hands in front of her he could just make out the smile gracing her lips.

That made it all worth it.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

_**To be continued…**_

******I would like to ask you all a favor. For every chapter of this story you read, please leave a review. My personal goal for this story is to reach at least 1600, though I would like to reach 2000 and I do believe I might die of happiness if I got so far as 10000 (Mein Gott!). ******

**Sensatsu Hyosho no Daikeimusho roughly means "Great Prison of a Thousand Murdering Flying Ice Needles". "Mite kure" is an informal, rather intimate way of saying, "Watch me."**

**I'm a bit worried that Jiraiya is _that_ easy to manipulate...I mean, they did it in canon, too, when Itachi used a woman to get Jiraiya away from Naruto (and it actually worked, for long enough that Jiraiya only showed up at the last minute).**** It's kind of scary that Naruto could bribe Sage Mode out of him with nothing but a few Kage Bunshin and a Henge. It seems to me that he has to _literally_ be in the middle of a fight to ignore a pretty woman. He'd be in paradise in the Bleach world, where every other girl is a super model...**

**But Sage Mode was actually the smartest thing he could have done. It's the only one of his strongest techniques that requires training on Myobokuzan in order to use, so it's the only one of his strongest techniques he could have shown Naruto without worrying Naruto might try to copy it (and halfway succeed, killing himself in the process). Plus, Sage Mode Jiraiya is, in his own words, "ugly." At this point, Naruto is shallow enough that Jiraiya thinks he'll be too disgusted with the ugliness to actually try it for himself.**

**And I find it incredibly difficult to believe that, in canon, Sasuke could achieve Lee's Taijutsu speed, some measure of Lee's Taijutsu skill, and learn to do Kakashi's Chidori well enough he can use it twice a day (when Kakashi could only use it four times in a day) during that month free, while all Naruto learned to do was ask the Fox for chakra. I mean, come on. If Naruto was really having so much trouble with Kuchiyose (which he started learning on Day One or Day Two of the month long break), then Jiraiya would have thrown him off that cliff within the first week. There should be no way that Kuchiyose was all Naruto did for that month. Just...damn.**

**I've heard a lot of negative stuff about NaruHina, and the biggest argument seems to be that Hinata doesn't get enough screen time to be the love interest. But the idea that such a thing precludes her from winding up with Naruto is ridiculous, and the idea that Naruto must end up with Sakura because she has much **_**more**_** screen time is equally ridiculous. There is nothing to say that screen time has anything to do with who he'll eventually fall in love with. Anyone who believes that need only look at Harry Potter, who wound up with Ginny Weasely (the girl with some of the least screen time) instead of Hermione Granger (the girl with the most screen time). And, naturally, (or so those NaruHina naysayers claim) any NaruHina fan is rabid and violently intolerant of any other ships and shippers (ignoring the fact that those same people are violently intolerant of NaruHina — I'm really getting tired of hypocrites. They make me so frustrated!). Can't we all just be sensible human beings?**

**I've news: Sasuke will not be getting a Zanpakuto. ****I'm not sure about Tenten, because Sô'unga was and is important to the beginning of CCTAM, so we'll see. Maybe she'll just get it off screen or something.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach**

_**When the aura dissipated, both were gone, though joy came not to Apeiron…**_

**James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes**

_James Daniel Godric Alan __F__awkes_**(Signature best viewed in **_**Wendy Medium**_** font style)**


	3. Across the Borderline

— "_Yours is the power to change fate. Yours is the power to rule destiny."_

**Absolute Zero: The Azure Sky  
>By: <strong>James D. Fawkes

**Chapter Three: Across the Borderline  
>— o.0.O.O.0.o — <strong>

The other Finals matches were not nearly as exciting as Naruto's had been. In fact, of the other three matches, only one was actually happening. Sasuke was missing-in-action, so his match with Gaara had been postponed (Naruto had crossed his arms and grunted a complaint that anyone else would have been disqualified), and Kankuro hadn't even entered the arena before forfeiting, so Shino's match had been over before it had even begun. Of the first round of matches (which, quite naturally, had to be completed in their entirety before the second round could start), that only left Shikamaru's match.

But Shikamaru was Shikamaru, and he was notoriously lazy. What had started out quick and dirty had, after the first few minutes, turned into a long and tedious battle between strategists. A lot of people seemed bored, and some had taken the opportunity to make a quick stop at the restroom or buy some more refreshments while Shikamaru and Temari had a staring contest and tried to outthink each other.

Naruto used the lull in Shikamaru's battle to pay a visit to his favorite spectator. Genma might have told him he should stay with the other competitors, but Shikamaru's battle had been going on _forever_. And they were just _standing_ there, doing nothing. There was no way he was going to watch them if that was all they were doing.

"Oi, Hinata-chan!" he called, waving as he walked down the steps two at a time. She jumped a foot in the air out of her seat, and when she turned to look at him, a single delicate hand was pressed against her chest, as though to calm her heart.

"N-Naruto-kun," she smiled a small, unsure smile. He frowned. He'd have to work on that. A girl like her shouldn't have to feel insecure about _smiling_. "Congratulations."

Naruto's felt his mouth pull into a large grin. "Thanks! I really beat that Neji jerk, didn't I? Taught him about picking on a girl!" One dainty hand lifted to hide Hinata's mouth, and he had the sneaking suspicion she was trying not to laugh. A thought came to him. "I have an idea! Hey, Hinata-chan, let's go to Ichiraku's to celebrate!"

Hinata did a double take, and as she looked at him with something akin to nervous surprise, her cheeks blossomed with pink. "N-now?" she asked incredulously.

"No, not _now_, silly," he said. "I mean, after! You know, after the Finals are over and done with. We can go and have some ramen at Ichiraku's! I'll even pay!"

Iruka, Naruto thought, would have had a heart attack if he'd heard that. Naruto _never_ offered to pay for ramen, never ever.

Hinata glanced down and to the side, as though listening to a voice only she could hear, then looked back up at him and smiled, though her cheeks were still tinged red. "I-I'd like that, Naruto-kun."

The entire crowd suddenly fell silent. There were only a few quiet murmurings amongst them. Naruto blinked, then turned to look back into the arena and stopped cold. Something akin to surprise bloomed in his belly. Shikamaru actually had his opponent trapped.

Shikamaru was actually going to win.

Naruto found himself at the railing before he knew what was happening and watched with unblinking eyes, waiting for the finish. Shikamaru raised his hand, opened his mouth, and then said, "I forfeit."

The entire crowd was suddenly silent — it seemed as though they had all forgotten to breath. They were all staring, like Naruto, down into the arena and asking themselves what had just happened.

At least, Naruto was, anyway. He couldn't speak for the rest of the crowd, but he was staring down into the arena and wondering if maybe his hearing was going, or his imagination was getting the better of him. There was no other way, he reasoned, no way he would have ever heard what he had.

Shikamaru shrugged, as if to say, "Oh well," or "It doesn't matter to me." He had the usual bored look on his face, not the intense focus that had been there moments before or the searing solemnity he had shown when confronting Gaara in Lee's hospital room. He looked like he was ready to lie down and take a nap.

Naruto could hardly believe it.

"Huh?" Genma asked incredulously. His senbon threatened to fall from his loose lips. He looked as if he'd been told that the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure wore pink underwear decorated with pretty red hearts.

"Wh-wha—," Temari stuttered. Her eyes wide and her mouth had dropped open in shock. "What did you say?"

"That's right. You heard me," Shikamaru said lazily. "I quit. It was fun and all, but this wouldn't last much longer, anyway. I'm almost out of chakra. In fact, I think I've got enough to hold this for another ten seconds, tops."

"What?" Temari asked, dumbfounded. "You mean that, after all that talk about not losing to a girl, and after all the trouble you gave me, you're forfeiting? Throwing in the towel?"

"Must I repeat myself?" Shikamaru retorted rudely. His shadow suddenly retracted, retreating from her as though she had some contagious disease. "There, you happy? I couldn't fight back even if I wanted to. You win."

"Um," Genma started slowly, as if the words refused to leave his lips. His eyes were still wide as he continued, "Winner…Temari."

The words had no sooner left his mouth than a sudden whirlwind exploded in the middle of the arena, kicking up dust and sending leaves dancing. Then, as suddenly as it had come, it vanished, and it its place stood two figures back to back.

The first person was tall, nearly twice as much so as his shorter companion. He wore navy blue under a green flak jacket and a mask to hide his face from the nose down. A Konoha hitai-ate was slung over his left eye like an eye-patch. His gravity-defying silvery gray hair spiked up like the bristles on a broom. His hands were nestled in his pockets.

The second person was a boy easily half the older one's age, no more than thirteen or fourteen at best. His bangs were long and parted to frame his face and reached easily to the very edge of his jawbone. His dark eyes flickered about the stadium as a small smirk quirked at the right side of his lips. His raven black hair spiked backwards at the back of his head, kind of like the hind end of a chicken.

Naruto smirked, cupping his mouth with one hand as he leaned against the steel railing, "Hey, Sasuke!"

The younger of the two figures looked up. His expression remained mostly neutral as Naruto continued, "What's the sword for, compensation?"

"I don't know, Naruto," Sasuke called back. The smirk on his lips stretched wider as he lightly fingered the hilt of the ninjato strapped horizontally to the back of his waist, "what's yours for?"

Naruto grinned broadly and fingered the azure hilt of his sword, hoping that Sasuke got the message. When Sasuke beat Gaara and it was their turn to fight, they would be matching more than just jutsu. When they fought, it would be a battle between swordsmen.

"Um…sorry," Kakashi addressed the examiner, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "We got kind of sidetracked. He's not…disqualified, is he?"

"No," Genma smirked. "You guys were really late, but we pushed his match back to last. As a matter of fact, we should probably be starting by now…"

"Oh, right!" Kakashi said, vanishing in a puff of smoke, only to reappear in the stands. Temari and Shikamaru followed his lead, heading back upstairs as Gaara appeared from the stairwell and walked calmly towards his opponent.

"Don't lose to this guy, Sasuke," Naruto muttered as Genma stood between the two Genin.

"Since Uchiha-san wasn't here earlier, I'll go over the rules again very quickly," Genma said. "There are no rules regarding what you can or can't do. The match is only over when one of you gives up, is rendered unable to continue, or dies. If I conclude that the match is finished, then it is, and if you still try to continue, I will move to stop it. Understood?"

Gaara grunted and Sasuke gave a quick, jerky nod.

"Now…finally, begin!"

Sand burst from Gaara's gourd and Sasuke leapt back and away. His body was visibly tense, and it could be seen from his posture that he was cautious. Good, Naruto thought. He shouldn't be taking Gaara lightly. Another Bijuu container would have a great deal more raw power than an ordinary Genin.

Then the sand seemed to flinch, writhing as if in agony. Naruto remembered distinctly those moments in Lee's hospital room and wondered, was Sasuke's sword like his? But it couldn't be, he thought. Hyôrinmaru had not roused in the back of his mind the way he had with Hinata's Tobiume.

So then what was going on with Gaara?

Gaara grunted and grasped his head, muttering to himself. "Don't be so angry…Kaa-san. That blood I gave you earlier…it was disgusting. But I promise. This blood will be so much better."

Naruto gripped the railing nervously. Something inside his chest clenched, and he was all too well aware, as he had been that day in the hospital, that it could have been him. If it hadn't been for Iruka and the Hokage, the two people who had extended a hand of love and acceptance to him, he would have been the same. He would have become a monster.

Gaara flinched, cringing, and the sand fell lifelessly to the ground. He took in a few deep breaths, then stood straight as his face smoothed out into its normal calm façade and Gaara's empty teal eyes glared at Sasuke from rings of black. His brow furrowed as his lips drew tight and his arms folded in his typical fashion. The sand was calm, floating around him smoothly.

"Come," Gaara uttered in a low, dangerous voice.

"Naruto-kun," a voice said as a hand came to rest on his shoulder. The spell that had bound his eyes to the match was broken as Naruto jumped nearly a foot in the air and turned his head to look at Kakashi, who stood just slightly behind him.

"Jeez, Kakashi-sensei," he said quietly, willing his heart to calm down. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry," Kakashi said, smiling. A moment later, he was serious and leaned down as though to share a secret. "Listen. The Hokage and several other very important people were asking about Hyôrinmaru." Naruto swallowed nervously as a cold block of dread plunged into his stomach. His mouth was suddenly dry. "I told them that I gave it to you."

The relief that flooded him must have shown on his face because Kakashi gave him a quick smile before he continued, "If anyone asks, Naruto-kun, Hyôrinmaru is an heirloom from your mother, passed down through the Uzumaki clan for generations. It's the last remnant of your family from before Ushiogakure was wiped out."

"I understand," Naruto said. He paused a moment. "Kakashi-sensei…Does that mean that I'm the only Uzumaki left?"

"That I know of," Kakashi said solemnly. "It's impossible to say for sure, but you _are_ the only Uzumaki left in Konoha, and Ushiogakure is nothing but ruins now, so…"

"I see," Naruto said in a low, trembling voice. He'd always suspected, but it was another thing entirely to have it confirmed. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi didn't say anything. He just gave Naruto's shoulder a squeeze and walked away. Naruto swallowed thickly, then turned back around to watch the fight.

Down in the arena, Sasuke dashed towards his opponent, kicking up a trail of dust as he moved. He flung two shuriken, and the sand rose up and grabbed them out of the air. It morphed into a copy of Gaara, glaring at him with the two shuriken grasped in its fingers. It exploded outwards and Sasuke leapt up, tossing two more as the Gaara clone tried to use his previous ones against him. They met halfway and clattered uselessly to the ground.

Sasuke landed and punched a hole through the doppelganger; the sand was blasted apart, then surged inwards and grasped at his wrist. He brought his other hand up in a palm strike, blasting the sand clone's head to bits. He rushed forwards again, aiming a punch at Gaara's face. The sand rose to block, but Sasuke vanished, reappearing behind Gaara. Before Gaara could turn to stop him, Sasuke landed a solid punch on his left cheek, sending him flying.

The sand formed a cushion for Gaara, standing him back up as it repaired the damaged section of Suna no Yoroi. Gaara's glare seemed to intensify.

"That speed," Gai remarked in surprise. He turned to his eternal rival, "Kakashi, you…?"

"I did," Kakashi nodded. "I had him imagine how Lee would fight and copy it. Needless to say, he picked it up quite well."

Naruto thought that was quite an understatement.

"I see," Gai said seriously. "But you do realize that pure Taijutsu won't be enough for this, don't you? Even my brilliant pupil couldn't beat Gaara-san with Taijutsu alone."

"Taijutsu isn't all I taught him," Kakashi remarked lightly. Naruto nearly snorted. Of course it wasn't. Focusing entirely upon one skill was good for a particular type of fight, but never for general combat. "Sasuke-kun and I are very similar people."

In a blur, Sasuke was upon him again, landing another punch. It hit and he continued, lifting himself and Gaara into the air as he went. A second punch, an elbow to the gut, a knee to the solar plexus, and a palm strike to the chest. He grabbed Gaara's white sash and tan strap, swinging his head forward and into Gaara's. He twisted around, throwing Gaara into the ground. Sasuke landed lightly, but was panting heavily, and Naruto, who had been thinking all the while that Sasuke could not have achieved in a month what took Lee years, realized he was right. Sasuke might have managed to achieve Lee's speed, but he didn't have the stamina to keep it going.

Gaara stood slowly, but Sasuke allowed him no reprieve, punching him squarely in the jaw with enough force to leave a crater in the wall. Gaara flew backwards several feet, landing on a soft cushion of sand. He stood slowly as his Suna no Yoroi slowly began to flake off, revealing the pale flesh of his face.

The sand swirled, forming an orb around him as he moved his hands into a single seal. There were several surprised gasps in the crowd, mainly from the team of Sand Ninja that Gaara called comrades. An ominous feeling settled in Naruto's belly. That could _not_ be good.

Sand trickled upward from the orb and swirled to form an eyeball that stared out at Sasuke.

Sasuke scowled and glared at the large ball of sand. He tossed a shuriken towards his foe, watching as a spike of sand shot out from the sphere and destroyed them easily. Sasuke's scowl deepened and he dashed towards the orb at amazing speeds. He let out a war cry and slammed his fist into the sand, and it could only have been his Sharingan that allowed him to dodge the sudden spikes that nearly impaled him. Naruto clenched nervously at the railing. An inch to either direction and the match would have been over.

Sasuke jumped backwards and did several flips, stopping on the side of the arena wall and sitting on it like a stool. He nodded to himself, then flashed through three quick hand seals and braced his left arm with his right hand. Chakra gathered and turned quickly into a blue lightning that fizzled loudly. The sound of a thousand birds chirping filled the area as Sasuke crouched on the wall, prepared to make a fast dash.

Gai turned to Kakashi, "Kakashi, you didn't!"

"I told you, Gai," Kakashi said in a firm monotone, "Sasuke-kun and I are very similar people."

Then Sasuke became a blur as he ran full speed down the wall, a trail of destruction left in his wake. Naruto reeled backwards — a technique like that was not only incredibly powerful, but incredibly dangerous. A straight-up head-first dash was the worst possible thing you could do in a fight to the death if you didn't have a contingency, back up, or at least a few clones to serve as a distraction, as he himself had learned from personal experience.

As he hit the ground, Sasuke continued forward, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris. The crowd roared even louder as Sasuke closed in on his opponent, dodging around the spikes that shot towards him — the Sharingan, Naruto realized. That was how Sasuke could get away with a head-on rush. An attack that would normally be suicide was much less dangerous if you could predict how your opponent would react.

The ball of sand didn't seem to offer any resistance at all. Sasuke's hand cut through it, passing quickly through the sphere and striking Gaara. All was quiet as the crowd waited with baited breath for the result — Naruto was torn between wanting Sasuke to win and wanting Gaara to survive. An attack that did that much damage was a game-ender — most of the spots it could hit would do catastrophic damage (and Naruto mourned Haku again, who had taken this technique right through the heart).

"What's this? This warm moisture?" Gaara's voice asked. There was a certain child-like confusion in it, and something in Naruto twisted painfully. He couldn't put a name to it — sympathy, empathy, pity, they all seemed good, but perhaps the most significant part was the one that recognized just how_ horrible_ Gaara sounded. "_Blood_? Is this _my_ blood?"

Gaara screamed then, an ear-splitting blood-curdling cry that sent a cold shiver down Naruto's spine. Everything that happened next was a blur — Kankuro, Temari, and their sensei were suddenly standing down in the arena, tensed and staring unblinkingly at Sasuke as the sand orb cracked and fell apart. Feathers drifted down the stadium and Naruto felt a prickle on the back of his neck as the people around him began to fall asleep, even as his own eyes grew heavy. Then there was an audible snap in the back of his mind and whatever had been trying to lull him off was broken.

And all of the sudden, the whole stadium shook as the Kage box exploded and erupted with smoke. Ninja, all wearing either the Sand or Sound headbands, leapt from their hiding places and attacked. Naruto's sword was out an instant later, and Hinata, who had broken the Genjutsu herself, leapt up from her seat, drawing her own sword in a single fluid motion.

The next few minutes seemed to pass in an instant as Naruto and Hinata, fighting back to back, cut down whatever came their way. Under different circumstances, Naruto imagined that they might not have been so lucky, but the ninja who attacked them did so without any semblance of strategy or cohesion. They all seemed to be focused on the idea of overwhelming them with numbers — but Naruto was the _king_ of stamina, and that meant that he had enough energy to take down the ones that Hinata could not.

A ninja came, grasping a kunai and plunging it downwards. Naruto deflected it, then carved a long gash down his chest. The ninja was sent flying backwards and crashed into the wall, then slid down and remained motionless.

A second ninja came, crying a war cry and pouncing towards him like a tiger would its prey, but Naruto stabbed him in his unprotected stomach, straight through the flak jacket. The ninja gave a startled gurgle, reaching for the wound, and Naruto kicked him away.

The third ninja was no better, and Naruto lopped his head off, ignoring the queasy feeling in his stomach as the two pieces of his foe fell in different directions. It was necessary, he kept telling himself. It was him or them. Him or them. The moment he let himself feel sorry for them, that was the moment he lost.

"Naruto!"

Naruto spun around, swinging his sword with the entirety of his strength. It stopped mid-swing, poised at Kakashi's throat — Kakashi had blocked it with the kunai in his right hand. Nonetheless, a few inches further and Naruto would have killed his own sensei. His stomach twisted sickeningly.

"Naruto," Kakashi said as Hyôrinmaru left its spot by his neck, "Sasuke's gone after Gaara —" he paused and stabbed his kunai into the chest of a ninja who had tried to attack him from behind. He hadn't even turned to look. "— I want you to take Shikamaru, Sakura, and Pakkun and go after Sasuke. When you reach him, evacuate to a safe area and await further orders. Only engage Gaara if you have no other choice. Consider this a mission, A-Rank."

He gestured behind him, where Sakura, Shikamaru, and a little pug with half-lidded eyes skidded to a halt seconds later. Naruto hesitated, and glanced around him, from the battle being waged around the sleeping crowd to the huge purple barrier surrounding the Kage box.

"But the old man," he began.

"The Hokage can take care of himself, Naruto," Kakashi said firmly, "and we can handle things here. I need you to go after Sasuke. You're the only one I trust to handle things with him and Gaara."

Gai suddenly shot between them, his fist buried in the gut of masked Sound ninja, and crashed into the wall — but he didn't stop there. He burst through the wall, came to a sudden halt, and sent his foe flying out and down. He stood straight, then turned and gave Kakashi a serious nod. Kakashi nodded back.

"Go," Kakashi told Naruto. He jerked his head towards the hole in the wall. "I'm counting on you."

Naruto grimaced, then held out his hand and pointed one finger outwards without even looking. "Hadô no Yon: Byakurai," he said solemnly. A burst of white lightning leapt from his fingertip and cut through the air, then leapt past Hinata's shoulder and struck down the enemy that had been about to attack her.

Hinata spun around to face him — while Kakashi had spoken, she had continued fighting — and blinked as her eyes returned to normal. There was a fine sheen of sweat about her brow and she was breathing a little hard. He walked up to her, stopped, and pulled her into a sudden hug. He could not say why he did it, only that it soothed the worried ache in his chest — the worry that he might not see her again, that either of them might die before the day was out.

She seemed to stop breathing, and he chocked it up to the fact that he'd never really done anything like that before. For all that he had visited her and talked with her at least twice a week during her hospital stay, he had never really been physically affectionate like he was with Iruka. But now was not the time to think about those things, he reminded himself. He needed to get going.

"Stay safe," he told her quietly. "I'll be back. I promise."

He let her go as she stammered out his name, then turned around and leapt through the hole in the wall. Shikamaru, Sakura, and Pakkun were on his heels. Behind him, he heard her voice cry, "Hajike, Tobiume!" and the sound of a firework shrieking into the sky, and then his feet hit the ground and he took off running. The buildings passed him by in a blur, and then he was suddenly in the forest, with grass beneath his feet instead of a dusty dirt road.

"This way!" an unfamiliar voice called, and Pakkun raced ahead of him to lead.

"Jeez," Shikamaru whined. "Couldn't you guys take this a little slower?"

"No time!" Sakura shot back.

"The whole point of us going in a small group," Naruto told him, "was that we could move faster!"

He leapt upwards and into the trees, following Pakkun. Sakura was behind him and Shikamaru was behind her. He could not help the thought that they made quite a group — three Genin and a dog.

"I know that," Shikamaru said, "but that doesn't mean we can't slow down a little!"

"How long will it take us to catch up?" Naruto asked, ignoring Shikamaru.

"Hard to say," Pakkun replied. "He's moving pretty fast."

He landed on the next branch and hesitated only a second before moving on. Naruto frowned and wondered for a moment what he'd noticed.

"We need to move a bit faster," Pakkun said after a moment of silence. "We've got two platoons on our tail — eight ninja — no, scratch that, nine ninja, I don't know how strong."

Naruto frowned again and tapped his fingers against the next branch as he passed — a technique Hyôrinmaru had shown him to fish out ninja he couldn't see. It didn't have a very big range, and it couldn't catch guys who really knew how to hide themselves, but it served its purpose, and it was a lot faster than standing still for a few minutes.

"Ichi, ni, san…" he counted beneath his breath. "Pakkun's right. Nine of them. Damn it. And they're catching up fast."

"We could set up an ambush," Sakura suggested.

"That won't work," Pakkun said. "We're up against Orochimaru's men."

"Which means that they've probably been planning for this mission and training for this terrain," Shikamaru said. "The squad that's chasing us is probably especially prepared for this battle, which means they're probably an expert pursuit squad. Even if we could clear all the necessary conditions, there're too many unknowns to pull off a successful ambush. There might even be a Jounin amongst them."

"Then what do we do?" Sakura asked.

"We just keep running!" Naruto declared confidently.

"No," Shikamaru said. "We'll need to run a decoy operation to distract them. One of us will have to stay behind to fake an ambush in order to buy time for the others to go on."

"Decoy?" Naruto demanded. Nine against one…whoever stayed behind wouldn't be coming back. "That's suicide!"

"For either of you two, yeah, it would be." Shikamaru smirked. "That's why I'm the one who'll be the decoy."

There was a moment of silence — no one questioned the choice. They all knew that Shikamaru was the smartest of their group, and against such a large enemy squad, the only one of them who could think their way out of it was Shikamaru. At least, that's what Naruto thought. But Sakura was pretty smart, too, when she wasn't letting her affections for Sasuke cloud her judgments, so she'd probably figured it all out, too. Shikamaru was the best choice.

"Don't you dare die," Naruto said without looking back.

"Heh," Shikamaru scoffed. "Who do you think you're talking to? Dying right now would be way too troublesome."

And then they were one man short and it was just Naruto, Sakura, and Pakkun. They continued on in silence — there was nothing more they could say. If they spoke, it would only be to voice their concern for Shikamaru, and to voice it would give life to the terrible doubt that they might have left him to die.

"Sasuke has stopped," Pakkun said abruptly. "But we still have a ways to go before we reach him."

Which meant that he was facing Gaara, Naruto thought, or, at the very least, either of the other two Sand Genin. But Sasuke was strong and determined and capable of being incredibly stubborn. Two Sand Genin would not stop him, especially not when he had nearly killed their strongest.

But Gaara had not revealed his full power — he had not actually had the chance, as Naruto suspected he had tried during the exam, right before everything went sideways. Sasuke had. If he'd resorted to using Kakashi's signature move, then he'd been pulling out all the stops, which meant that he had no more aces up his sleeve. Even his sword, no matter what he could do with it, would not be enough to save him from Gaara.

They had to hurry.

Pakkun gave another sniff.

"Sasuke's on the move again," he declared. "He's following two others, but another two have broken off and begun fighting. One of them…doesn't smell human. In any case," he added, "we'll have to take a longer route to avoid those two."

"Can't we just go straight through?" Sakura asked.

"Not unless we want to get caught up in their fight," Pakkun said solemnly. "That'd slow us down even more."

"Damn it," Naruto growled. "All these stupid delays…Then let's get going! There's no time to waste!"

And they were off again, racing through the trees as fast as their legs would carry them. Naruto could feel Sakura's worried eyes on the back of his head, and it did nothing to ease the growing sense of wrongness that was twisting up his insides. There was a horrible omen in the air, an oppressive weight that pressed down on his shoulders, and it only served to urge him onwards. No, there wasn't time to waste.

So they ran, and ran, and ran, leaping from branch to branch so fast that they nearly missed their landings a few times. The forest stretched out in front of them, and several times Naruto thought that they must have traveled half the breadth of Fire Country. How much longer, he wondered anxiously. It seemed that no matter how far they ran, they never got any closer.

Then he felt it, and its presence — thick and murderous and overbearing — was so sudden that he nearly lost his footing. He made another two leaps, and then he heard it, a roar of manic bloodlust unlike anything he had ever heard before. Another leap — then they saw it, a monstrous form, half man and half beast. The tuft of red hair and the human left arm and legs were the only ways to recognize that it was Gaara.

The man-beast was jumping towards something, grotesque right arm raised, and Naruto's eyes followed its path to the downed form of Sasuke, lying helpless on a branch. Sakura overtook him before he could stop her, crying, "Sasuke-kun!"

"Wait, Sakura!"

It took only minimal effort for Gaara to change his direction and repel her, and then he had pinned Sakura to a tree with a giant sand paw and left her hanging there. She was slumped, unconscious, and something in Naruto twisted again. He may have abandoned his crush on her, but she was still Sakura, and she was still his teammate.

So, he incanted.

"Sprinkled on the bones of the beast!" he called furiously. Gaara turned to look at him with one green human eye and one unnatural golden eye, but he had already started the second part. "Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring! Move and become the wind! Stop and become the calm! The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle!"

The look on Gaara's face quite clearly said that he didn't intend to let Naruto finish. The massive arm of sand that had defeated Sakura in a single blow was suddenly coming his way. "DIE!"

But it was too late. Naruto had already finished.

"Hadô no Rokujuu-san!" Naruto called. "Raikôhô!"

A surge of yellow burst from his hand like a thick bolt of lightning and struck the sand arm, blasting it to pieces and revealing the human arm inside it. Gaara let out an agonized scream, clutching at his right arm — it was red and raw-looking and smoking. His entire arm looked as though it had been dunked in boiling water.

But Naruto allowed him no time to push past the pain, and swung his fist into Gaara's face a moment later. Gaara went flying and came to a sudden halt as he crashed into a thick tree and slid slowly down onto an outstretched branch. Naruto grimaced and waved his hand around, trying to will away the stinging in his knuckles. Striking the transformed portion of Gaara's face was like smashing his fist into a brick wall.

Gaara gave a bestial growl that rumbled up his throat, then stood. Before Naruto's eyes, the raw pink skin steamed and healed over in an instant, and the monstrous sand arm reformed as though it hadn't even been destroyed. Naruto's insides plummeted — he was facing someone like him, who could heal from serious injuries in the span of a few short minutes and fight for hours before tiring.

Hyôrinmaru was out and in his hand an instant later, and he was moving forward as Gaara let out a challenging roar that shook the trees around them. The sand arm swung towards him again, but he was already gone when it struck where he'd been standing. He was suddenly behind Gaara, sword already in motion, but Gaara was much faster than usual, and the slash that would have cut the sand arm in half instead lopped off the triangular ear that jutted out of the top of Gaara's head.

But Naruto was still faster than Gaara. When the sand arm came swinging around again, Naruto was behind him again, three branches away and finishing a set of hand seals. "Teppoudama!" He inhaled, cheeks puffing up, then spat out three tightly packed balls of water one after the other.

Gaara's other arm and the other half of his face transformed, and he lifted the massive beige and purple appendage to block the three shots as though they were nothing but spitballs. Naruto scowled, then lifted his free hand and made a swift gesture, "Sajo Sabaku!" (Locking Bondage Stripes)

A long chain of yellow energy wound around Gaara's body, pinning his arms to his sides and constricting tightly. But Naruto was not done — a Bakudô with the incantation abandoned, even one of that level, would not last long. "Ruler!" he called. "The mask of blood and flesh! All creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus! In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens! Hadô no Nanajuu-san: Sôren Sôkatsui!"

The twin flashes of blue fire struck swiftly and simultaneously and with an incredible amount of force — the backlash of wind would have sent the average Academy student soaring. Gaara's voice gave an ear-splitting shriek, and as the smoke cleared, the mass of disfigured sand that remained resembled nothing so much as a mangled ant hill. Then the screech morphed and became a twisted laugh that sent shivers down Naruto's spine.

"The Uchiha was nothing!" Gaara cackled insanely. The manic grin that stretched his face looked even more grotesque on the mangled sand-thing than it did on a normal human. "You can truly affirm my existence! You can make me feel alive! You are…my _prey_!"

The sand that had covered his body burst outwards, growing larger and larger and taller and taller, crushing trees underfoot as it slowly formed into a giant of a beast. Gaara had disappeared inside it, and Naruto leapt backwards and out of the way as the monster took the shape of a raccoon-dog.

It was ugly.

That was Naruto's first reaction. It was a humongous beast, easily the size of a summoned boss, large and beige and decorated with vein-like purple lines. It had a wide belly, so big that it was a miracle the thing could stand to walk without dragging its gut along the ground. The tail was thick and colossal, as well, and looked like it possessed fully half the mass that made up the hideous creature. The teeth formed a gigantic under bite and the eyes were orbs of dull gold surrounded by a sea of black.

Naruto knew immediately that none of his jutsu possessed the raw power to destroy Gaara's new form. Suiryûdan, Daibakufu, and Baksui Shôha had the most base destructive force, but the amount of chakra he would need to make any of them big enough to destroy the monster in front of him was too much even for him. He thought for a moment of trying to summon the Toad Boss, but dashed it immediately. A fight between two colossuses would run the risk of killing Sasuke and Sakura, and he couldn't do that.

That left only one real option.

"Guess there's nothing for it," he mumbled to himself. He took a step forward and into the air as though it were solid ground as a massive blue-white aura leapt to life around him. He swung his sword forward, pointing it towards Gaara, and the sky above them grew dark. Lightning flashed and thunder roared. The sun vanished behind the clouds. The air grew thick and oppressive.

"Bankai," Naruto uttered solemnly.

The aura exploded and water gushed upwards from Naruto's sword, forming a draconian head around his hand and up his arm. Two wings pieced themselves together from the moisture in the air and formed on his back, then a tail, then a pair of greaves that engulfed his feet. Three crystalline flowers formed, floating in the air behind him with four petals each. The guard on his sword had formed an extra four prongs, and resembled nothing now so much as a lotus in bloom.

"Daiguren Hyôrinmaru," Naruto intoned calmly. (Great Crimson Lotus Ice Ring)

The ground far below him and the trees all around him had frosted over, and in that instant, Naruto felt more powerful than he ever had before. The feeling of invincibility that had filled him during his first moments wielding Hyôrinmaru had returned tenfold. He felt sure, now, that he could subjugate the heavens. He could bring down the sky.

He swung. A trio of winged dragons leapt from the arc of his sword and towards Gaara as Naruto soared upwards above the trees. The dragons swirled around the sand beast and wound around its four legs like gigantic pythons, then froze in place. The demon struggled a moment, but broke free with little effort. Naruto frowned. Standard attacks were ineffective.

"Damn this guy can take a beating."

He lifted his sword and swung in a long, horizontal line. "Kongô Hokori!" (Diamond Dust)

A massive wave of water gushed from his sword and swept forward. Everything it consumed was shredded into pulp, and it destroyed trees, gouged a crater into the ground, and tore off the demon's arm and a portion of its stomach as though they were nothing. Two petals on the first flower floating behind Naruto disintegrated.

But the creature did not stand still and wait for him to attack again. It avoided the rest of the wave and swung its remaining arm around, and even though he managed to duck beneath it, the sweeping wind that followed its passing threatened to send him spiraling back into the forest.

"You won't beat me that easily!" Naruto swung again. "Kongô Hokori!"

But he missed entirely, and the wave crashed over the forest, shredding more trees and gouging another crater into the earth. Two more petals vanished. The demon swung again, and the force of its blow toppled any tree that it passed over, but Naruto vanished and appeared over its head and stabbed it right between the eyes.

"Eat this! Ryûsenka!" (Dragon Hail Flower)

A gigantic ice flower bloomed over the sand monsters face, and it roared, stumbling backwards as it swatted blindly at him — but he was already gone again, watching from a safe distance away as it brushed his attack off its face and out of its eyes. It leveled a glare at him, and then, at the top of its head, the sand twisted and morphed and spun as Gaara appeared from within. The first petal on the second flower evaporated.

Gaara wasted no time on words — he had barely come out before his hands had already formed into a seal. Naruto was too far away to hear exactly what technique he used, but it clearly wasn't offensive, because Gaara slumped forwards, asleep, a moment after using it.

The beast shifted and grew, impossibly, still larger as its golden eyes took on a brighter hue. It swelled and lifted its face skyward, then screamed, "Yahoo! I'm free! Haha! Free!"

It turned its menacing eyes his direction and lifted its remaining arm to point at him, "And I've even got some prey sitting right here in front of me!"

"I'm no one's prey!" Naruto retorted angrily. He lifted his sword and pointed it towards the dark clouds above him. "Take this, you ugly piece of shit! Hyôten Hyakka — "

"_DON'T!"_ Hyôrinmaru urged suddenly. Naruto froze, mouth half open. _"You don't have the control! If you use that technique here and now, you'll kill your friends, too! Anything and everything beneath your sky will be destroyed!"_

Naruto snarled furiously and swung his sword back down, "Damn it!"

He twisted his sword angrily and swung it horizontally once, twice, three times, aiming at the slumped form of Gaara atop the monster's head. Another petal broke apart. "Guncho Tsurara!" (Icicle Flock)

With each swing came a burst of eight ice prongs, each sharp and deadly and thrice the size of the ordinary kunai, but the beast, Shukaku, lifted its remaining arm and absorbed all twenty-four as though they were nothing. Then it reared up on its hind legs as its belly swelled like a balloon. "Renkuudan!"

The remaining arm came down and slammed into the beast's gut, which deflated in an instant as a bullet of air came bursting out of its mouth. Naruto swung upwards, "Zekku!" and a surge of ice sliced the bullet in half. It sizzled out impotently, and by the time it actually reached him, it was nothing more than a brisk breeze. The second flower's third petal vanished into the air.

Shukaku took in another breath, its belly swelling again, but Naruto wouldn't give it the chance fire another burst at him. He swung again in a long horizontal line, hoping that it wouldn't be able to dodge while in the middle of its own attack. "Kongô Hokori!"

Another two petals vanished as a colossal wave surged out of his sword, but the Shukaku had seen his technique too many times. It fired its bullet of wind into the ground and propelled itself up and into the air, over his attack, where it took in another breath and aimed for him.

"_Naruto!" _Hyôrinmaru's voice said urgently. _"You're running out of time! You need to finish this!"_

Naruto didn't have the chance to tell Hyôrinmaru that, yes, he knew that, for at that moment he had to dodge a bullet of compressed wind that soared past him with enough force to strip the flesh from his bones. It didn't hit him, but the second bullet was already barreling down on him by the time he realized that the first was a distraction, and he couldn't move fast enough to get out of its way.

At the last second, he brought his wings around to form a shield in front of him. The bullet struck with all the force of a freight train and shot him down into the forest like an arrow. Barely, it seemed, had it hit him than he was blasting through trees and branches and skidding across the ground. The tail that had formed beneath his wings was gone, and much of the ice that coated his back and shoulders was stripped away as he tore a gouge into the earth with his own body. When he had finally come to a halt, he was dizzy and disoriented and could do nothing except wait for the killing blow. He lied there helpless, waiting for the hand that would crush him into the dirt.

But it never came.

When he could stand without the world swaying and his feet giving out beneath him, he was alone and his Bankai was fully regenerated. Only two petals remained and he no longer felt invincible and unstoppable, but he felt powerful. The ground beneath him shook, but Shukaku was not lumbering towards him. It was instead headed in the opposite direction, towards the village. Naruto realized that he had a chance to prepare. He could set up his most time consuming attack.

The thought had barely crept into his mind before he was off, flying, weaving between the trees and branches as he summoned as much as ice he could. He could feel the energy leaving him, like sand in a sieve, but didn't pause or waver. This was his last chance. He had to finish the fight with this final blow, or else the village was doomed. He did not bother to consider whether Kakashi and Gai could handle the Ichibi no Shukaku — it didn't matter. If Naruto didn't stop it here, then it didn't matter if others could eventually defeat the beast, because so many people would die long before they did.

So as he felt his technique reach its peak, he put on an extra burst of speed and vanished, appearing an instant later in front of the monster's massive maw. It jerked to a stop and moved to sit back on its hind legs again, as it had for the majority of their fight, but Naruto didn't wait for it to prepare its own attack. He lifted his sword. Around them, gigantic pillars of ice rose up from the ground to form a cage with no roof whose bars reached the heavens and disappeared into the clouds.

Naruto fixed Shukaku's golden eyes with the single most frigid glare he could, then twisted his sword sideways, "Sennen Hyôrô." (One Thousand Year Ice Prison)

The pillars surged inwards, passing Naruto and encaging the Shukaku in a giant box. There was no room for escape — the Shukaku let out an ear-splitting shriek, threw one impressive punch against its prison, which shuddered threateningly, then fell silent. The last two petals evaporated, and Naruto felt his Bankai dissolve like so much dust in the wind. In front of him, the colossal prison gave a single gigantic shiver, then began to dissolve, as well.

But Naruto hadn't the time to worry about it, because his tenuous footing in the air was suddenly lost and he plummeted towards the ground — across from him, Gaara, too, was falling. Naruto channeled as much chakra into his legs as he dared and braced himself for the impact.

He hit the ground with an enormous slam, and shoots of pain lanced up and down his legs as he grit his teeth. He daren't move, not until he could be sure that his first step wouldn't send him careening sideways towards the unforgiving earth. A few minutes later, the pain had lessened to an unpleasant tingle and he decided that would have to be enough — he took off through the trees as fast as he could, applying Shunpô where and when he thought it safe enough.

He found Gaara in a small clearing, lying helplessly on the ground and propped up against the trunk of a tree. Naruto realized with a jolt that he had probably wiggled himself into that position, and that it had probably taken all of the energy and effort he had left to get only that far.

Gaara's eyes alighted on him and went wide. He tried desperately to back away, but succeeded only in pressing himself up against the tree.

"Stay away!" he cried. "My existence will not vanish!"

Naruto stopped uncertainly in front of Gaara as something in his belly wrenched, then dropped clumsily into an awkward kneel — one knee and one foot planted firmly on the ground. He hung his head and let his hair fall in front of his eyes to hide the sudden swell of emotion that grew inside of him. The empathy, sympathy, the burgeoning bonds of kinship that he had felt with Gaara since the day previous, staring opposite him in Lee's hospital room — they all surged up inside him at once and it was all he could do not let out a wounded sob, for they brought with them all the pain and loneliness that had burdened him when he was younger. He gathered himself, reined in all the tremulous emotions that wanted to run him, but could not stop his voice from trembling.

"I understand," he said. "All those things you talked about…the hatred, the loneliness, the endless wondering and desire for a purpose, for _something_ to define who you are and why you live…I understand all of those so well that it hurts to think about it. And when I think about how it must have been for you, when you had _nobody…_"

"How?" Gaara asked after a moment. "How are you so strong?"

"Because I have people who are precious to me," Naruto declared. "Someone…Someone found me, accepted me and loved me — _me_ — and gave me a reason and a purpose. Then I found more people — Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata…And if it wasn't for all of them, I'd have turned out just like you."

He blinked away the tears that threatened at the corner of his eyes. He remembered Haku. "And then I met someone…and she told me, 'A ninja is strongest when he has someone he wants to protect.'"

He lifted his head and looked Gaara in the eye, "I'm strong, because I have people who are important to me, and I will do _anything_ to protect them. Because that's what being a ninja of Konoha is all about. That's what being Hokage—"

But he froze. His insides twisted and his stomach plummeted, and the sudden panic that shot through him stopped his mouth mid-word. He'd completely forgotten. He'd completely forgotten — and how could he? How could he have forgotten about the old man?

He stood in an instant and swore profusely, and it was only the incredible chakra control that he now had, even if it only lasted for a single hour while his reiryoku regenerated, that prevented his sloppy seal work from botching the Kage Bunshin that appeared beside him. He didn't need to give it any orders — it nodded to him once, then hefted Gaara up and started ushering him away.

He looked back out towards the village and searched desperately for the old man's reiatsu, and found only a wavering presence that felt as though it were just about to snuff it. His hands curled into fists and his fingernails left painful crescent marks in the flesh of his palms.

"Are you going to use _that_?" Hyôrinmaru asked him calmly, its smooth underbelly pressing lightly against his bare arm.

"I have to," Naruto responded, not even moving his eyes. To him, Hyôrinmaru materializing next to him was an everyday thing. "I've almost completely drained my Reiryoku. Bankai took a lot out of me. I've got almost nothing left."

He did not need to explain that he meant his excess reiryoku, the stuff that did not bind together and form chakra. As Hyôrinmaru had been the one to explain it to him, Naruto did not need to say that he could not split his chakra into its components. Hyôrinmaru was already well aware of what such an imbalance would do, and had explained every gory detail.

"I see what you mean," came the reply — Hyôrinmaru conceding his point. "So then, our Advent… You realize, however, that this is untested. You only saw the Toad Sage's technique once. That's all you managed to bribe out of him."

"I know," Naruto said solemnly.

The dragon hummed, "Naruto, this skill is much different than Bankai. In Shikai and Bankai, you are borrowing my power and I lend it to you unconditionally. With this skill, however, you are accepting me, wholly and completely. You and I are becoming almost entirely one being. You will almost certainly exhibit emotional influences from me and you will be limited entirely to our combined power. You will be unable to use ordinary chakra and reiryoku for the duration of this technique."

The dragon trailed off and was silent for a moment (though there had been something of a satisfaction in its words), looking at something in the distance.

"We cannot hold it forever," Hyôrinmaru said at last. "My power was not meant to be contained in a human body; it is why my form in this world is a sword and why I cannot stay materialized like this indefinitely. Should we stay too close for too long, your power will burn this human body of yours from the inside out. You will die."

Naruto's mouth set into a grim line, but inside his head, the part of him that Hyôrinmaru had spent the last month training into submission, that exuberant, dramatic child, balked and screamed in panic. He wasn't ready to die yet. He had to become Hokage, so that everyone would respect and acknowledge him. He had to show the entire village that he was worth something.

And then the other part, the part that had come to the surface and taken almost permanent hold of him, the serious part that had promised Mizuki a thousand-fold any pain inflicted on Iruka, resolutely declared that he was willing to die to save those he cared about. And he listened to that voice; he made his decision.

Blue eyes sharpened and Naruto pressed his fingers together in a hand seal unlike any other he had ever made. It was unique, a hand seal that was all his own, that had been invented for the sole purpose of the technique now grinding into motion. Hyôrinmaru curled around his body and melted into his flesh; he did not fade and dissipate as was normal.

Sky blue eyes deepened into a crystal navy; a single black ring formed in the middle of each iris, halfway between its edge and the round black pupil at the center. The muscles in his arms bulged grotesquely, then shrank back to their normal sizes as pure energy enhanced them beyond their normal human limitations. Soft, matte black feathers drifted to the ground as a single wing sprouted from his back, passing through his vest as though it were incorporeal.

The transformation ended; the wing stretched experimentally, then folded against him passively. Naruto leaned his head back and took a deep breath of air in through his nose, then let it go slowly. He lifted his hand, turning it over and over again as he inspected some change that only he could see.

"Ryûjin no Torai. Fifty percent," he mused quietly. "And yet, I feel…I feel…"

Suddenly hollow. It was as though there was a part of him missing, a part that he desperately longed for. It was almost like there was a giant hole in his chest, like his heart was missing and he had no idea how to get it back.

"_Focus, Naruto,"_ Hyôrinmaru's voice whispered, but it was much closer than before, much louder and clearer than even those moments when they'd been speaking face to face. _"There will be time later to ruminate upon the happenings of this technique, upon the feeling of emptiness that pervades even your inner world. Right now, your attention should be upon the man who has been to you as a grandfather."_

"You're right," Naruto admitted, letting go of a shuddering sigh. "I need to…I need to focus. The old man needs me. Right." He slapped himself on the cheek a few times to knock himself from his thoughts and feelings. "Right then, let's go."

He closed his eyes and focused, brow knit and furrowed and his mouth drawn into a tight scowl. The air around him seemed to shiver, then his eyes snapped back open and focused upon a single point in the distance.

His wing unfurled, spreading as far as it could.

"Hang on, old man," he said. He leapt up into the air with a single flap of his wing, paused a moment to get his bearings, then shot forward. "I'm coming!"

The ground beneath him became a blur and the trees a single massive green blob. The village walls and gate became larger and larger until they were tall enough to force even a creature Shukaku's size to come to a halt, but Naruto sped over the top as though it wasn't even there, and the village itself was suddenly below him — hundreds of sprawling buildings, melting into a single shapeless cream mass. He paid it no mind.

It was only an instant later that he was upon the stadium and the Kage box, which was still blocked by a humongous purple barrier. Naruto came to a sudden halt, landing atop the box with all the force of a freight train as the tiles and concrete beneath his feet buckled and shattered like glass. He was too focused to be bothered by it or notice the platoon of ANBU not far away, who stood anxiously outside the barrier.

Naruto had barely landed before he was walking briskly forward — he did not stop at the expansive purple wall, nor even hesitate to swipe his free hand through it. He had no reason to worry — he was beyond reason. In that moment, he existed for a single purpose, and nothing was going to stand in his way. The wall disintegrated under his touch, forming a man-sized hole, and the only thing Naruto had to show for it was a slight redness on the outside of his palm and pinky finger.

He stepped inside unceremoniously and the wall closed shut behind him, but he barely noticed. He didn't even bother with the artificial forest that stretched out in front of him, not even to wonder where it had come from or that it might be too strong to destroy. He was utterly confident in himself. He lifted his sword and swept it to the side — every tree that stood in front of the arc of his blade was sliced cleanly and slid sideways into the barrier, sizzling as it caught fire and burned.

With the trees gone, nothing else stood in his way. A single flash step carried him forward, and when he came to a halt, Orochimaru and the Hokage stood deadlocked in front of him, motionless and snarling at each other…and behind the Sandaime, there was a ghastly figure with purple skin, shaggy white hair, a white robe, and a pair of wicked-looking horns. It reeked of power and darkness beyond understanding, and something about it felt to Naruto's senses…_wrong_, like it shouldn't exist. It felt like a creature of emptiness. It was as though it did not even exist.

"There was no need for me to dodge the blade!" the Sandaime was saying. Blood trickled down the sides of his mouth. "This Jutsu is a forbidden skill that costs the caster his life! It's a powerful sealing Jutsu that defeated even the greatest threat Konoha has ever faced!"

"What?" Orochimaru hissed furiously. "You don't mean — the Kyubi no Yoko! Argh! Damn you, old man!"

Naruto lifted his sword to strike Orochimaru down, but paused, and the unwavering confidence in his belly wavered. He didn't know what was happening. If he did anything, he might make the situation worse. If he interfered, he might become entangled in that monstrous creature hovering malignantly over the Hokage's shoulder — and the same something inside him that knew the hideous thing was dangerous told him that interfering with it was more so. He could die. He could inadvertently destroy the village, or even the whole world. So he let his sword drop and the anger bubble up inside of him.

"If you hurt the old man, Orochimaru," he vowed, and the two combatants looked at him, both over Orochimaru's shoulder, "I'll kill you myself."

The Sandaime was the first to turn his attention away, and directed his gaze determinedly at something in the vicinity of Orochimaru's stomach it seemed only he could see. The old man gave a grunt as though he was attempting to pull something out of Orochimaru's body, and grimaced — it seemed he failed. An odd sense of foreboding settled in Naruto's stomach.

"It doesn't matter!" the Hokage cried aloud. "The seal is set! The end is now! For your punishment, Orochimaru, my wayward student, I take that which has the most value to you: your ability to use Jutsu! Shiki Fujin! Fuin!"

Behind the old man, Naruto saw the ghastly beast lift a short dagger and swipe its gleaming silver blade down between the Hokage and Orochimaru, as though cutting something. The Sandaime gave a grunt, then collapsed backwards as the skin revealed by the hole in his shirt sizzled and twisted — a seal drew itself there, glowing red, then faded into black ink.

The Sandaime hit the ground and didn't move — he was dead. The spectral figure behind him faded and vanished in a black mist. The uneasy feeling inside Naruto's belly lifted and was gone.

Orochimaru hissed as his arms began to blacken and fell uselessly to his sides. But Naruto was paying it no mind — he was already kneeling beside the fallen Hokage, afraid to touch him but unsure what else to do. Something inside him squirmed painfully, and the grief that flooded him was worse than the horrible moment in Wave when he realized that Haku was dead.

But he had no time to mourn.

"You senile old fool!" Orochimaru yelled with a rasp, snarling at his former teacher and ignoring Naruto. "Look what you've done! Come back to life so I can kill you again!"

"Orochimaru," the pain and sorrow in Naruto's belly ignited into a blazing anger as he stood slowly and turned his gaze to the Snake Sennin, to whom he owed both a debt of gratitude for Hyôrinmaru and a debt of blood for the old man lying now at his feet. "I warned you…that if you hurt the old man…"

The ground beneath him crackled and blackened, and every tile within five feet of him shattered and disintegrated. "I'd kill you myself!"

He raised his sword and moved to attack, but before he could make it more than a single step forward, something hard struck him on the back of his head. The world swayed and blurred — he saw four figures converge on Orochimaru (one of them, the one with six arms, was nursing a burned and blackened hand) and help him stand straight, then leap away, and then the ground came up to greet him and everything went black.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

_**To be continued...**_

**I would like to ask you all a favor. For every chapter of this story you read, please leave a review. There are over thirteen thousand hits on this story, that's an average of six and a half thousand per chapter (not including this one). Even if every person who's read this has read each chapter twice, that's still more than three thousand people a chapter. If only one in fifty left a review, I would be immensely happy (and far more likely to update faster).**

**It's kind of a relief. This chapter is more my usual size. It still feels like I should have done a bit more with it, but…**

**Ryûjin no Torai means "Advent of the Dragon God". And since you guys have already given me 70-odd reviews (and I eagerly await more - my personal goal is to at least match, and hopefully surpass, the review count on SUTFH. I hope to reach at least 1600) I figured I'd leave you this little nugget: For those of you keeping up with the Bleach manga and who know what a Fullbring is...You've already seen Naruto's Fullbring. In fact, you've been seeing it since chapter one. Naruto's Fullbring is the manifestation of his soul in the physical world. In other words, Naruto's Fullbring is to manifest his Shinigami powers in his human body.**

**Where to begin with Naruto…I'm trying to rebalance him, as I explained in the first chapter. This is actually immensely difficult. The Naruto of before had a lot of power, but he still had his weaknesses. This new version in this rewrite…he still has a lot of power, but I'm trying to make it more even. Considering all the new stuff I'm trying to tie in (actually from the Bleach universe, not the Naruto one), this is really hard.**

**All right. The new "Ryûjin no Torai" is sort of like Ichigo's final form, where he becomes one with his sword. Naruto has only accomplished that in part. Like Hyôrinmaru said, the closer he gets to a full merge and the longer he stays like that, the more likely he is to destroy his body from the inside out (Ouch). So, yes, those of you who read the original will know that what happens later will have to change, too.**

**Like I said, a lot of new stuff, both with Bleach and for here. **

**Did anyone catch that little tidbit a put in there? Those who did, you must have thought I was going to have him pull an Aizen — "The Kototsu is a being of Reason. Reason exists only for those who need it. Let's go, Gin…to the edge of Reason."**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach**

_**The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.**_

**James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes**

_James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes_**(Signature best viewed in **_**Wendy Medium**_** font style)**


	4. No More Shallow Dreams

— "_You __will __be __the __protector __of __all __my __children. __You __will __be __my __sword. __You __will __be __my __shield.__"_

**Absolute ****Zero: ****The ****Azure ****Sky  
>By: <strong>James D. Fawkes

**Chapter Four: No More Shallow Dreams  
>— o.0.O.O.0.o — <strong>

The room was dark and cast in gray-scale. The windows were shut tight and the curtains were fully drawn, and what little light struggled through was dim and pale. Naruto rubbed his eyes and thought again about the dream that had awoken him a scant few minutes before.

But it was little use. The images were fading away like water falling through his fingers, until all he could remember were tiny snippets and short clips of sound — a girl with long silvery hair and bright blue eyes, whose voice dipped from a loud whisper in his ear to barely audible, then back again — _"__You _shall be my _Azure __Knight,__"_ that's what she'd said. Then — _"__All _of _water _shall be _your __weapon. __All __of __heaven _is _yours_ to command._"_

Then — then, after that, there'd been something else, he was sure of it, but he couldn't remember what, and then a girl with long dark hair in a black kimono and a white haori with the kanji for "Zero" stitched on the back. Even if he forgot the rest of the dream entirely, he could not forget her and her incredible beauty — and the other girl's voice had come back, too, that was right, and it'd been clearer and something like, _"__Do __you __like __her? __She__'__s __the __head __of __my __Royal __Guard, __a __warrior __that __might __someday __give __even _you _a __difficult __time.__"_

And then the first girl again, wearing a shimmering silvery gown that appeared woven from liquid moonlight as it fluttered in a nonexistent breeze. And she'd spoken again — _"__Tsukuyomi __has __betrayed __us__" _— and given him a sad smile.

Then the girl was offering him a sword, a familiar sword with a familiar blue hilt and star-shaped guard — _"__A __great __force; __the __power __it __holds __can __bring __salvation __or __destruction __at __the __whim __of __the __wielder. __Do __you __accept __it?__"_

Then only snippets of conversation, all in that blue-eyed girl's voice.

" — _my right hand…"_

" — _for I will have betrayed —"_

" — _you have my blessing —"_

"— _not many can say —"_

And on and on it had gone, snatches of speech too garbled and fragmented to understand, until —

"_It__'__s __time __again.__" _She was looking down at him, and she was stroking his hair lovingly and his head was situated in her lap. _"__I __leave __it __all __up __to __you, __Naruto-kun.__"_

And then he had lurched awake, frozen in his bed, covered in cold sweat, and his heart racing. His sheets were frosted over and the alarm clock beside his bed had stopped ticking. The dream, so vivid and so very, very _real_, was burned into his eyelids and the words echoed in his ears.

Even after an hour of thought, it still didn't make any sense. He didn't recognize any of it — not the first girl, not the strangely formal uniform the second girl was wearing, not the stuff about some Royal Guard — that was for princesses and kings and people like that, right? — not some guy named Tsukuyomi, and definitely not why anyone would want the kanji for "Zero" anywhere on their clothes.

But the black haired girl was startlingly familiar, and his chest gave an unfamiliar clench at the thought of her. She was older, of course, and more mature looking, but if Hinata grew her hair out, then she'd look just like the strange girl in his dream a few years from now. In fact, they could probably pass for sisters.

Naruto peeled his sheets away and sat up, letting his feet fall to the floor. Clothes were strewn about the place haphazardly — all along the floor, hanging from the posts of his bed, slumped over his bedside table and the top of his wardrobe. His room looked as though it had been struck by a hurricane.

"_Those __people,__"_ he thought silently. _"__That __dream__ — __were __they__…__no, __memories?__"_

He reached out to Hyôrinmaru, but was, at that moment, repulsed. The dragon drew himself up and pulled away from Naruto, and it was, for that instant, as though Naruto was alone again. It was as though Hyôrinmaru had never existed. He felt so incredibly hollow and oh so heartrendingly _alone_.

And then Hyôrinmaru's familiar cool presence came rushing back and sent an oddly comfortable chill down his spine. Naruto let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and sagged in relief.

"_I__'__m __sorry,__"_ Hyôrinmaru said sadly. A rush of warmth bloomed in Naruto's chest — Hyôrinmaru's way of apologizing, a sort of hug of the heart.

Naruto brushed off the apology — there was nothing to apologize for, and he could never stay angry at his closest confidante. He might get frustrated every now and again, but the one thing that always assured him was the knowledge that everything Hyôrinmaru did was for Naruto's sake, even to the point of sacrificing others sometimes.

"_What __was __that?__"_ Naruto asked silently. _"__Those __images__…__I __feel __like __I __knew __those __people, __like __I__'__ve __met __them __before, __but __I__'__ve __never __seen __them __in __my __life. __Were __they__…__memories?_ Your _memories?__"_

There was a long moment of silence.

"I'm sorry," Hyôrinmaru said, suddenly curled around him protectively. "You ask me the most important of questions, and yet I cannot answer you. I cannot tell you to whom those memories belonged, nor who the people that appeared in them are. I don't even know why you're seeing them — though, perhaps it's a result of our temporary merge."

"So I'm seeing them because we used Ryûjin no Torai?" Naruto asked with an uncharacteristic quietness.

Hyôrinmaru shifted uneasily, as if he had accidentally revealed more than he intended, then finally said, "Yes. And it is likely that you will continue to see these images in your sleep, and that they will appear to you as flashes of moments, too small to make anything of. I imagine…" And it was incredible, because he had never known Hyôrinmaru to hesitate like that. "I imagine that the only way to make sense of them, to see them all and know their meaning, is for us to merge fully."

Naruto's brow furrowed, "But we can't!" Frustrated, he slammed his fist down on his bedside table, rattling the alarm clock — and it started to tick again. Naruto paid it no mind. "We went as far as we could, and even that was only halfway! And _this_ happened!"

He glared angrily at his bandaged left hand. He wasn't sure how bad it was now, after having a day or two to heal, but when he'd woken up in the hospital and asked what was wrong with it, the nurse had told him that his fingertips had been burned black, and that any normal shinobi would probably have to either gotten them amputated or undergone some intensive surgeries. The doctors had shrugged and brushed it off as chakra burns, but Naruto knew better — the power of Ryûjin no Torai had started to consume him from the inside out, and if the technique hadn't deactivated when he'd lost consciousness, he would have burned to a shriveled crisp.

"You achieved Bankai less than a week ago," Hyôrinmaru said sternly. "You have used it only once — against Gaara — and have little experience handling its full might. I told you, Naruto, that you must normally train ten years to master your Bankai, and I told you that we have never been normal — but that does not mean you don't need to train your Bankai. You are far from being its master and you are far from unlocking its full potential. It's natural that Ryûjin no Torai is incomplete because your Bankai is incomplete."

Naruto cringed, but it was not the scolding that bothered him — he'd been told off too many times to be bothered too much by it — it was the reminder that he was inexperienced with his Bankai. And that reminder only served to remind him of the consequences of his inexperience.

The fight with Gaara had been an intense one, and even though Naruto constantly told himself he could have found a way to win without his Bankai, he could still not find a better solution. At the time, he'd been cornered and boxed in and had nothing else he could have done (except summoning, but he'd never summoned the Boss before, so there was no point risking it when he couldn't be sure he'd actually manage, especially when he also ran the risk of crushing his teammates underfoot). He hadn't really been thinking about the consequences at the time, nor the magnitude of his Bankai and the amount of area it would cover.

That had been his mistake.

Hyôrinmaru was an ice-type, and his Bankai was no different. But when he'd activated it and his reiatsu flooded the forest, covering everything in frost, the one thing he'd forgotten to take into account was his comrades: he had completely forgotten about Sasuke and Sakura, had completely forgotten that they were only a few branches away, unable to move. And it had cost them dearly.

The doctors had told him that it was touch and go for a while, but that both should make a full recovery. That did little to soothe Naruto, who had been haunted by the images of their frozen, blackened fingers and toes since the moment he'd seen them. And he had promised himself, no more Bankai. Not if those were the consequences. The boost of power wasn't worth his friends' lives or careers.

"What is the point of mistakes, Naruto?" Hyôrinmaru asked. Naruto was startled out of his thoughts.

"That doesn't mean anything!" Naruto sputtered. "If I had just —"

"What is the point of mistakes, Naruto?" Hyôrinmaru asked again, a little more forceful. Naruto frowned and looked down at his feet. The floor was suddenly very interesting.

"To learn from them," he muttered quietly.

"In the heat of battle, you forgot the consequences of your actions and forgot about your teammates, and so they paid the price," Hyôrinmaru explained. "But they still live, and are likely to make a full recovery. And so you have learned your lesson. You understand now the true magnitude of your power, and you understand why I told you that your Bankai is not to be unleashed lightly. You understand what it means to hold the power of the heavens themselves at your beck and call."

There was a pause, and the message sunk in fully. Yes, Naruto understood now. He understood why Hyôrinmaru had stopped him from using his Bankai against Neji, and why Hyôrinmaru had always stressed just how powerful a Bankai actually was. He understood the old adage the Hokage had once quoted at him long ago — "With Great power comes Great responsibility."

"Nonetheless," Hyôrinmaru said, "using your Bankai was not your mistake — indeed, Bankai was the most feasible option you had in that situation. Rather, your mistake was forgetting to move your teammates out of the line of fire. And you have learned from that mistake, so there is nothing to be gained from lecturing you now. There are…_other_ things to worry about today."

But that did nothing to make Naruto feel better, because today was also the day of the Hokage's funeral — a reminder not only of his failure to save someone he held dear, but that he had indeed lost his oldest friend, who had loved him as he would his own grandson for as long as Naruto could remember.

Naruto did not cry. He had cried all his tears already, and somehow, a small part of him had already accepted the truth that he didn't want to: Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen was dead, and he wasn't coming back.

But that was still no comfort. That he had started to accept it did not change the fact that it was true, that his oldest friend, the first person to believe in him, the first person to care for him, the man he had looked up to and loved as much as he would any member of his family (especially since he had none), was dead and gone.

It did not change the fact that it was Orochimaru's fault.

It did not change the fact that he, for the first time, understood Sasuke's desire for vengeance.

Hyôrinmaru said nothing — he knew best of all that words couldn't comfort Naruto when he'd lost someone — and vanished into the air when a knock sounded from the door, which opened a moment later to reveal Hatake Kakashi dressed all in black. His little orange book was conspicuously absent.

"Naruto," Kakashi said solemnly. "It's time."

Naruto nodded. "I'll be with you in a minute, sensei."

Kakashi nodded back and closed the door behind him. Naruto stood and shucked off his pajamas, pulling on a black shirt and pants quietly. They fit perfectly, but felt oddly constricting and suffocating. He wanted nothing more than to tear them back off and burn them, but steeled himself and ignored it. Everyone would be wearing it, he reminded himself, even Sasuke and Sakura, so he couldn't just put on his usual clothing.

With everything in place, he forced himself forward and through the door. Kakashi sat staring off into space at the small table where Naruto usually ate breakfast. He looked up at Naruto and stood wordlessly. It was not a time for talk. Neither of them appreciated useless platitudes about how Sarutobi was in a better place now. Because of how they'd grown up and how they'd lived their lives, Naruto and Kakashi appreciated their loved ones more than most. Now, Sandaime was dead. Words could never make it better.

"Let's go," Kakashi said at length. "We shouldn't be late."

In another time and place, Naruto might have laughed or gawked and wondered who had replaced his sensei, because Kakashi was practically synonymous with late. If you looked up 'late' in the dictionary, Naruto would have joked, you'd find a picture of Kakashi staring up at you.

But now was not the time or the place.

"Yeah."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

It was already raining when Naruto took his place between Iruka and his teammates. Sasuke and Sakura said nothing, and though their hands and feet were wrapped in thick gauze and several fingers were splinted, both of them were whole and relatively undamaged. Whatever wounds they'd suffered because of him seemed to be healing quite nicely.

The rain showed no signs of stopping as the large crowd of mourners paid their respects one by one. They were all, like Naruto, dressed in black, and it seemed almost as though the entire village had shown up, from the tall, rotund Akimichi to the stone-faced Hyuga to Yuuhi Kurenai, Hinata's sensei. The only one who seemed to be missing was Kakashi, who had vanished somewhere along the line while Naruto hadn't been paying attention.

"The sky is crying," he heard Asuma — Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji's sensei — mutter quietly.

No one else really spoke, and Naruto was dimly aware that the funeral honored all of the ninja who had given their lives for Konoha during the invasion, not simply the Sandaime, but all the other pictures propped up at the front of the procession seemed like featureless blobs. They were complete strangers, and though the more altruistic part of him mourned them, the Hokage was the only one he really cared about.

The rain fell heavier and soaked into his clothes, dripping down over his cheeks and off his chin. He thought absently that it must look like he was crying. It was a strange, odd sort of feeling that he couldn't really describe, except that his stomach gave a gentle lurch. A mild case of indigestion — that's sort of what it felt like.

Everything seemed surreal. He felt lost, standing there amongst hundreds of unfamiliar faces. It didn't feel real. It didn't feel like it was happening to him. It seemed more than anything like he was watching someone else's life. It was like he was watching some stranger stand in his place, staring listlessly at the face of the man who had been his oldest and kindest friend.

Why? He wondered silently. Why did the old man have to die? His fists clenched tightly and his fingernails carved crescents into the flesh of his palms. Why was it that everyone he cared about was dying around him? First Haku, who had befriended him despite the fact that they were enemies, and then the old man, who had been the closest he'd ever had to family. Who would die next? Sakura? Sasuke? Kakashi? Iruka?

…Hinata?

Frustration welled up in his belly. He'd never felt so _helpless_ before, not like he did now, not like he had that day atop the stadium, watching the old man's life wither and vanish before his very eyes. He'd gotten so much stronger since becoming a Genin, since Kakashi's bell test, since Wave, since the Forest of Death. Did it mean nothing? Was all that strength useless?

Even if he got stronger, perfected his Bankai and completed the full form of Ryûjin no Torai, would it even matter? Or would everyone and everything he cared about just…disappear, like so much dust in the wind?

Konohamaru bursting into tears jerked him from his thoughts. He glanced to Iruka's other side, where the younger boy stood, rubbing his eyes and crying, and immediately felt guilty. Naruto had already lost someone, so he was familiar with the cacophony of what ifs that bounced around in his head. Konohamaru was innocent. He'd never had to lose someone he loved before. And now Naruto felt ashamed that he couldn't protect that innocence, and that he couldn't say anything to make it better. What kind of hero was he if he couldn't even stop a kid from crying?

Before he knew it, it was Hinata's turn, and she laid her single white flower atop the pedestal and bowed to it. Her lips moved silently for a moment, then she stood again and moved back to her place in line. Pearly tears made silent tracks down her face, but other than the slight downturn of her lips and the knitting of her brow, her face didn't betray whatever she must have been feeling.

Shino was next, and after him, it was finally Naruto's turn, and as his feet carried him forward, he felt utterly numb. Every step took forever, and it seemed an eternity must have passed before he stood in front of the Sandaime's picture. He lifted his right hand and turned his eyes down to his palm. It was empty.

The rain swirled and bent above his hand, curving inwards and slowly coalescing into a shape. First came the long, thin stem, then the smooth, narrow leaves, then the petals that bloomed and curled outwards at the tops. Bit by bit, drop by drop, a perfect rose formed in his palm. It was made entirely of ice and etched with exquisite detail, something a sculptor might have made.

A myriad of thoughts and things he wanted to say burst to life in his brain as he set the rose down with the white lilies everyone else had offered. He wanted to tell the old man that he'd miss him. He wanted to ask him why he'd had to die. He wanted to promise revenge, that Orochimaru wouldn't get away with what he'd done. He wanted to cry and rage and shout about how unfair it all was.

In the end, his hand fell back to his side impotently, and he simply said, "Thanks…Jii-chan."

_Thanks for everything._

He turned back and took his place in line again. The swirl of emotions rose up inside him again, and he felt then that he understood Sasuke a little better. He had just lost the closest thing he'd ever had to family. How must Sasuke have felt, then, to lose everyone he had ever loved, all in one night and all to the same man?

But there was a fundamental difference to the two of them. Naruto would not go out of his way to seek out Orochimaru. He would train, he would get stronger, and then when their paths crossed again (and they would, if the Forest of Death was any indication), he would kill Orochimaru, but he would not dedicate his entire life to it, and he would not abandon his friends for the sake of revenge. If he did that, then it wouldn't matter if Orochimaru died or not, because he'd win in the end, and Naruto would be left with nothing but emptiness.

But Orochimaru would die. Naruto would make sure of it.

The rest of the funeral went by in a blur, and before he knew it, it was all over and everyone was leaving for home. Naruto silently watched his team head off somberly, saying their goodbyes to one another and turning to go their separate ways (including Kakashi, who seemed to have appeared again when he wasn't looking), then spun on his heel and vanished.

He reappeared on an empty street, already in the middle of taking a step, and continued forward absentmindedly. What now? He wondered as the pounding rain filled his ears with a loud buzz. What was going to happen now? Who was going to be the Godaime? Who had made Chunin, if anyone had, during the Finals? When would missions start up again?

And, most importantly, how was he going to get stronger?

"Hey, kid," a familiar voice called quietly. Naruto stopped, then turned to look at who had spoken and blinked as rain trickled down over his brow and bled into his eyes. There, leaning up against the wall of a shop, arms folded across his chest and face serious, was Jiraiya. And, Naruto realized enviously, he was dry.

Naruto frowned, then turned away and made to continue on. He was going to go back home and collapse onto his bed, and try to forget the dull pain in his chest and the hollow emptiness in his stomach. He didn't have to patience to deal with Jiraiya right now.

"Go away, Ero-Sennin," he said quietly. "I don't want to bother with your nonsense right now."

"I know how you feel," Jiraiya told him abruptly. Naruto stopped again, and had to squash the sudden anger that surged in his belly as he realized that it was probably true. Jiraiya was one of the Sannin, and they were taught by the Sandaime, right? So Jiraiya had lost his teacher. He _did_ have a pretty good idea of how Naruto felt right then. "What're you gonna do now?"

"Get stronger," he declared solemnly. "So that the next time I see Orochimaru, I can kill him."

"Are you really going to try killing Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked. "That's not an easy task, you know."

"I almost had him." Naruto revealed. "On the roof. I almost had him. If that freak with six arms hadn't knocked me out from behind, I would've killed that bastard then and there. I would've…"

He trailed off.

"What's it matter, anyhow? You did your part, right? The Chunin Exams are over. I beat Neji. You don't have to train me anymore."

Jiraiya snorted. "Give me a little more credit than that, brat. I'm not gonna stop training you just because the Exams are over. When did I ever say I would? Besides." He grinned. "I've got a mission for us. Just you and me. No Kakashi, Sasuke, or Sakura to get in the way."

Something stirred in Naruto's belly, something he recognized as the beginnings of excitement, and he turned back to Jiraiya slowly. "Mission?"

"Yep," Jiraiya nodded. "And, hey, I'll even teach you a really kickass technique along the way. It's even stronger than that Chidori Kakashi taught to Sasuke. So, what do you say? You feel like coming with me?"

Naruto grinned, and suddenly felt much lighter than he had in days. A mission, just him and Jiraiya and learning all the kickass jutsu he could while they traveled the countryside. How could he resist?

"When do we leave?"

"A week from today," Jiraiya said. "We're going to look for a teammate of mine so we can bring her back here for something. We might be gone for a while, so make sure you pack enough to last you about a month."

Naruto nodded. "Right!"

He turned to leave but had only taken a single step forward before Jiraiya's voice stopped him again.

"Naruto. This mission…" there was a slight hesitation. "We might see Orochimaru while we're away. With his arms the way they are, my teammate, Tsunade, the one we're going to be looking for, might be the only one capable of healing him. If we do see him, I don't want you doing something stupid in the name of revenge. Understand?"

There was a moment's pause.

"You don't have to worry about that, Ero-Sennin." Naruto said quietly. "I'm gonna be Hokage someday! I've got too much to live for to throw my life away for something like that."

Jiraiya gave a hum of understanding, then vanished with a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto alone in the rain again. But he felt better now. The weight of his own pain was lighter, easier to carry. It was true that the Sandaime was dead, and that he wasn't coming back, but Naruto still had people who cared for him and people that he cared for, too. As long as he had them, he'd be all right.

Because he wasn't alone.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The rain that had soaked the Sandaime's funeral did not last longer than a day, so the day after was bright and sunny, even though the ground was still pretty wet. So, figuring that he really didn't have anything better to do, Naruto decided to make good on his promise to Hinata and take her to Ichiraku's for Ramen, and that was how he found himself slurping noodles while he regaled her with the story of his first C-Rank mission. She was the perfect audience, gasping and oohing and awing at all the right parts.

"…and then this HUGE sword came out of nowhere!" he told her between bites. She had already finished eating, and her single bowl sat innocently on the counter as she devoted her entire attention to him. He himself was on his third bowl and had no intention of stopping any time soon. "And Kakashi-sensei pulled up his headband and was like, 'Momochi Zabuza, missing-nin of Kirigakure no Sato…Against you, I'll have to go all out.' And Zabuza was like, 'Hand over the old man and I'll let you live.' So Kakashi-sensei said —" slurp, chew, swallow, "—'I can't do that.' So Zabuza went, 'Then I guess we'll have to fight.'"

Naruto paused to eat some more, finished his third bowl, and started on his fourth — it gave him a moment to gather his memories of that day. Hinata was eyeing him with something akin to disbelief.

"Zabuza-san sounds scary," she said with quiet awe.

"Oh, he was nothing," Naruto promised, grinning. "I mean, he did capture Kakashi-sensei for a little bit there, but Sasuke and I managed to free him all on our own! And Zabuza was really a big softie on the inside! He just didn't…" he trailed off. Everything was coming back — the fear, the anger, the determination that had burned inside him, the righteous fury for Zabuza's coldhearted dismissal of his partner's death. Haku, Naruto remembered. Zabuza had loved Haku like his own child, and Haku had sacrificed herself for Zabuza. Haku, the first person to really understand Naruto's pain, had died right before his eyes. "He just didn't…show it all that well," he finished somberly.

Hinata's hand came to rest comfortingly on his own, and when he looked back up at her, her cheeks were aflame but her eyes were resolute. He was seeing that other Hinata, he realized, the same girl that had fought Neji and refused to stay down. He was seeing the same girl who had defended her home during the invasion with all the ferocity of a mother lioness.

"W-What happened?" she asked.

There was a long pause, and he looked down into his half-empty bowl of noodles. Ayame and Teuchi had disappeared to give them some privacy. He suddenly didn't have much of an appetite.

"After the fight," he said at length, "Zabuza was down. Kakashi-sensei was going in for the kill, but an Oinin from Kirigakure used senbon to do him in and took his body — except that it wasn't really an Oinin, it was Zabuza's partner, Haku. Kakashi-sensei fainted from chakra exhaustion right after, and when he woke up, he told us that Zabuza was actually alive."

He paused, and she gave his hand a comforting squeeze.

"After that, we trained. Kakashi-sensei taught us the Tree Climbing exercise. Sakura finished it right away, so she went to the bridge to protect old man Tazuna while Sasuke and I kept going. One day, I woke up on the forest floor to a really pretty girl, who was gathering herbs for her sick friend. She explained to me, 'A person is strongest when they have something to protect.' A week or so later, Zabuza showed up with his partner and attacked the bridge. Kakashi-sensei fought Zabuza and Sasuke fought his partner. I didn't show up until later because I'd slept in from training too much. I helped Sasuke, but neither of us stood a chance."

He swallowed thickly.

"Zabuza's partner used his senbon to put Sasuke in the same fake-death state he'd used on Zabuza. I thought Sasuke was dead, and after that, it gets fuzzy. I beat him up, broke the Kekkei Genkai technique he'd been using on me and Sasuke, and split his mask in half — only, it wasn't Zabuza's partner under the mask. It was that girl from the forest. She told me to kill her, and when I refused, she explained to me that she didn't have a purpose anymore if she couldn't serve Zabuza. She told me that her father had killed her mother for having a Kekkei Genkai, and that she'd been forced to kill her father in self-defense, and that her life after that was an orphan's hell — until he came and saved her."

He could feel the hot tears forming at the corners of his eyes, the tears he had never cried for Haku before. He sniffled and wiped his nose on a napkin. Hinata clasped his hand in both of hers and rubbed soothing circles over the backs of his knuckles.

"What h-happened to her?" she prompted gently.

"She died," Naruto said numbly. "She took Kakashi-sensei's assassination technique to the chest and died protecting Zabuza. She died saving the man who gave her a reason to live."

She died before he'd really gotten the chance to know her…

He slammed his fist against the counter and squeezed Hinata's hand painfully tight as the tears spilled out over his cheeks and carved burning paths over his whisker marks. She flinched, but did not let go. All of the emotions that had boiled inside of him since that day, the ones he'd pushed aside and hadn't really dealt with, burst inside his chest like an overinflated balloon. The memories of his childhood, his years of chilling loneliness, fed the flames. That day on the bridge, he'd lost someone who could have become his best friend. A good tantrum, a small part of him thought, was long overdue.

"She didn't have to die!" Naruto declared vehemently. "She didn't have to sacrifice herself like that!" He choked out a sob. _It __wasn__'__t __fair._"Why did she have to die? I'd finally met someone, someone who knew what it was like to be hated and shunned for something you couldn't control. And then she died, just like that!"

She died before they could really be friends. She died before he could tell her that he understood her better than she realized, before he could tell her about the ghastly beast that had shadowed him every second of his life — the first person he would have actually told.

He looked down and gingerly rubbed his stomach, where he knew the seal holding the Kyubi was drawn, "I'd…finally found someone who…who understood what it was like to be an outcast because of something that'd happened to you before you could even walk…"

Hinata's fingers stopped cold and her eyes went impossibly wide. He remembered only then the implications that would have, and how much more it would mean to a Hyuga, whose clan used a Juinjutsu to mark and subjugate the members of their Cadet Branch.

"Naruto-kun," she began bewilderedly, "what…?"

He froze and looked at her with a growing pit of horrified realization gnawing at his stomach. He'd said too much. He had almost revealed the Kyubi, the seal, the circumstances of the day he was born. He'd almost told his friend, his newest and most familiar friend, a secret that could cause her to hate him. He couldn't risk that. "Please don't ask!" he said desperately, because he'd break if she did. "Please, Hinata-chan!"

But she just looked at him, eyes wide, mouth open, silent and unmoving. His face fell. He turned away. He couldn't bear to look. Any second now, she would ask, and when she did, he would tell her about the Kyubi. He wouldn't be able to stop himself. And when he told her, she would understand, and she would hate him, and he just didn't know if he could take that kind of rejection —

She moved. He heard her stool creak as she stood and her hands left his. His heart sunk. She was leaving, she didn't want anything to do with him anymore, and it _hurt __so __bad, __why __did __it __have __to __hurt __so __bad_ — except she hadn't left. Her arms wrapped around him and pulled him to her as her chin settled on his shoulder. She hugged him tight, but not too tight, just enough to anchor him, and the relief that surged through him had never felt so _good_ before.

"Y-you don't have to say anything," she whispered in his ear. "I-it's your problem. A-a deep, d-deep problem. I don't have to know. I-I don't h-have a method of stepping into your h-heart without getting it d-dirty. So I'll wait. When you w-want to t-tell me, w-when you think i-it's okay to tell me…Tell me. Until then, I'll wait."

A slight smile, not a grin, but a real, genuine smile, curled on his lips. He reached up and grasped her hands in his. They were soft and delicate, but strong. They were warm.

"Thanks, Hinata-chan."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The sun had already risen when Naruto stared out the village gates and into the world beyond. It was warm against his shoulders and the back of his neck, but not uncomfortable, and in the distance, a flock of birds chirped a good morning to the rest of the world. It was strangely peaceful, and there wasn't even a hint of rainclouds on the horizon.

He could not help the smile that curled his lips, nor the restless energy that rushed through his veins like fire. He was about to go on a mission — the kind that wasn't technically official, that didn't have a rank and could be anything from a simple C to a dangerous and exciting A.

Or — dare he even hope — S.

The pack on his back was strangely light, he mused to himself. He could remember the mission to Wave, how his backpack had felt like a lead weight after the first hour or two of walking. Now, it was like it wasn't even there. For all the difference it would have made, it might as well have been empty.

But he wanted to get moving. He'd already been waiting for nearly half an hour. He wanted to get started already, leave the village for the mission and beat up some bad guys along the way. Because if this lady was as good as everyone said she was, good enough to maybe even heal Orochimaru's arms, then she had to be good enough to help Lee.

Right?

Oh, who was he kidding? He just wanted to see some action and learn some new jutsu. Finding that Tsunade lady so she could heal Lee was nice, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't just as interested in learning that technique Jiraiya had promised, the one even better than Sasuke's Chidori.

"Hey, kid, ready to go?"

Jiraiya's voice snapped Naruto from his thoughts, and he turned his head to see the older man standing a ways behind him, hand on his hip and grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

"Sure, Ero-Sennin," Naruto said. Jiraiya's grin dropped and his eyebrow twitched.

"I thought I told you not to call me that!" Jiraiya yelled furiously, a vein throbbing dangerously on his forehead. "It's Jiraiya! Jiraiya, damn it! Say it with me! Ji – rai – ya!"

Naruto stuck out his tongue, then faced back to the gate and laughed loudly. The image of Jiraiya's face — his eyebrow twitching, his teeth bared, his eyes wide and furious as a vein on his neck pulsed — was hilarious. He suddenly understood how Kakashi felt when he himself got all worked up.

"Naruto-kun!"

Naruto turned around mid-laugh and his mouth was still pulled into a broad grin when a cream-and-indigo blur launched itself into his chest like a missile. The remaining air in his lungs left his mouth in a sudden whoosh as a thin pair of arms wrapped tightly around his midsection. He turned his head, buried his nose in familiar strands of bluish black hair, and took a sniff. Lavender.

Hinata.

His arms lifted of their own accord and curled around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. She took in a short sharp gasp, and he could feel at that moment the rapid thump, thump, thump of her heart beating in tandem with his own. Her breath came in quick, anxious pants in his ear and her cheek was hot against his face. When they pulled away from each other a few moments later, Hinata's entire head had flushed a bright red that reached halfway down her neck. Her eyes fluttered, and it seemed it was all she could do to keep herself from fainting.

The feeling that squirmed in his belly was at once wonderful and terrifying.

Her head bowed down and she looked up at him shyly from under the neat line of her dark bangs. Her face grew impossibly redder and her arms wiggled a nervous pattern against the small of his back. Her mouth opened and closed several times soundlessly before she finally spoke. "A-Ano, Naruto-kun…B-be safe?"

A pleasant jolt shot through his stomach and his own cheeks flared as a huge grin pulled at his lips. It felt so…amazing to have someone to wish him well as he was leaving for a mission. Was this what everyone else felt when their parents told them stuff like "come home soon" and "we'll miss you"?

"You know me, Hinata-chan," he said brightly.

"Th-that's why I worry," she replied, and then her cheeks flushed brilliant red again. Naruto could hardly believe it — Hinata, who was often so worried about offending him that she didn't joke at his expense when he practically handed it to her, had just teased him. He couldn't help the laugh that burst from his mouth, and though she didn't join him, she did smile. It was a start.

"I'll be fine," he told her seriously, still smiling. It was impossible to describe exactly what he felt then, to know that someone cared so much — it was like he was walking on air, invincible and untouchable, and he'd never be sad again.

She looked down again and her fingers curled in his vest, then she looked back up and darted forward to peck him once on the cheek. Her cheeks bloomed red again, and he did not need a mirror to know his had as well.

"I-I'll miss you," she murmured quietly.

"I'll be back soon," he promised her softly.

"Oi, Naruto!" Jiraiya's voice called. "Quit with the romancing and let's get going!"

Hinata let out a squeak that sounded something like 'eep!' and the blush on her cheeks spread to consume the rest of her face and a good portion of her neck. Naruto ignored the rush of blood to his own face to concentrate on his retort.

"Yeah, yeah! Keep your shorts on, you old pervert!" Naruto called back. He ignored the response of "I don't hear you denying it!" and turned towards Hinata again, smiled, and pulled her into quick hug. "See you later, Hinata-chan."

Because she had become his best friend, this girl who leant him an ear when he needed one and a shoulder those rare moments when he couldn't stop the tears, this girl who was both nearly identical to him, yet also his exact opposite, and who never once thought him stupid or silly when he wasn't trying to be. This girl was his best friend. This girl was his _best __friend_.

"Bye," she mumbled as he pulled away.

"Hurry up, brat!" Jiraiya said as Naruto jogged to catch up with him. "I want to make it back in time for the Tanabata Festival next month. _No__one_ celebrates Tanabata as well as Konoha does."

Tanabata? Damn, Naruto thought, it had crept up on him. Was it really only a month away? March, April, June, July — August. Next month was August. August thirteenth was Tanabata this year, the most celebrated festival of the year, even bigger than the October tenth victory celebration that marked both his birthday and the day the Kyubi was defeated. The Tanabata Festival, which he planned on going to with Hinata (she was so sheltered! He'd get her away from those stuffy, stuck-up relatives of hers and show her a good time, he swore it!).

But Tanabata was still a month away, and finding that Tsunade lady shouldn't take that long, should it? Besides, there was other stuff that needed to be done first. Worrying about the Tanabata Festival could wait until later.

"I wanna be back in time for it, too," Naruto told him. He fell in step slightly behind Jiraiya, blindly fishing around in his backpack. "But you're the one who knows where we're going, so lead the way."

"Alright, alright," Jiraiya grumbled, "let's just get going."

Naruto's hand finally closed around something soft and crinkly, and as Jiraiya led the way down the road and the gates of Konoha disappeared behind them, he pulled a carefully folded letter from his backpack. He'd found it sitting on his kitchen table with a pair of scrolls that morning and hadn't yet had the chance to read it.

He unfolded the letter gently so as not to tear the delicate rice paper, and found enclosed within it a picture of a beautiful red-haired green-eyed woman who was very much pregnant standing in front of and holding hands with a blue-eyed man with spiky blond hair — Yondaime Hokage, he realized suddenly. They were both smiling at the camera and seemed very much in love.

But what did the Yondaime and his wife — girlfriend, lover, whatever she was — have to do with him?

He lifted the photo out of the way, found the beginning of the letter, and started to read.

_Naruto-kun,_ it began without preamble. The words were written with precise black brushstrokes.

_If you are reading this, then Kakashi has executed my will and you will have been given two other scrolls. Ordinarily, a Genin would not be trusted with the information enclosed within them, but if Kakashi believes you are mature enough to inherit such a powerful ancestral weapon from your mother's clan, then I believe I can trust you with these scrolls and the secrets they contain — a trust that I could not lay on the shoulders of any other ninja, for fear of what might become of these secrets. You, Naruto-kun, possess both the unwavering dedication to moral righteousness and love for the village necessary for that trust. And it does not hurt that you are low-ranked enough to carry these secrets without suspicion, nor that your incredible charisma can turn even a timid girl like Hyuga Hinata-chan into a fierce kunoichi. No one would dare believe I would share these secrets with you._

_One scroll details the truth of the Uchiha Massacre, the whole and unedited truth as I know it. That scroll is intended for my student, Jiraiya, and though I would prefer that you never read it, I know there is nothing I can do to stop you. Please make sure Jiraiya receives it; I could not leave it to him directly lest I attract unwanted attention. Enclosed within it is a set orders that Jiraiya must ensure are delivered._

_The second scroll is a guide to Fuin Jutsu that your father wrote shortly before your birth. It is uniquely designed — it starts out with beginner techniques, and the reader must have a complete grasp of those techniques before he moves on because he must unseal the next level of techniques using what he has already learned, and so on and so forth, moving steadily upwards in complexity and difficulty, until, knowing your father, you reach the pinnacle of Fuin Jutsu: your father's Hiraishin no Jutsu._

_This scroll was written for you, and I have no doubt that many of the Uzumaki clan's legendary sealing techniques are included in it as well. I have not read it, nor has anyone else, but I estimate that it would take the average ninja ten years to master everything that is in that scroll. That is why I have unwavering faith that you will master it in two._

_And now that I have hit upon that subject, I think once again of the maturity you have shown recently and the statement it makes for Kakashi to have given you such a priceless heirloom. So I have decided there is no reason for me to keep this secret from you any longer._

_Your mother, Naruto-kun, was a beautiful red-headed woman named Uzumaki Kushina. She, like you, was a very boisterous and excitable person, and she loved you since the moment she realized she was going to be a mother. She was also the previous host of the very beast currently sealed in your belly. She died as I once told you, when you asked me that time so many years ago, protecting you from the Kyubi._

_Your father was a tall man with blond hair and blue eyes the same as yours. He, too, possessed an incredible charisma, though his was of a different kind, and he was an incredibly capable ninja. His name was Namikaze Minato, the very man who went on to become both my successor and predecessor, the Yondaime Hokage, and he loved you no less than your mother did. _

_And now that I have told you this, I must ask that you keep it a secret. Your father made many enemies, enemies who would gladly burst through the village gates to take their revenge on you if they knew you were his son. When you are strong enough, strong enough to have your name carved into history, that is when you can stand tall and proudly announce to the world that the Yellow Flash was your father._

_Humbly and always yours,  
>Sarutobi Hiruzen<br>Sandaime Hokage_

Naruto did not know right away how to react to what had just been revealed to him, and the bittersweet love he had always held for his parents, now _Uzumaki __Kushina_ and _Namikaze __Minato_, whose names he had not known even a day ago, did not make it any easier to decide whether he should be furious that his father was the man who had essentially ensured his life would be miserable or proud he was the son of his hero.

His mother was much easier, and he could not find even the slightest ounce of resentment for her in his body. This was the woman who had brought him into the world, who had loved him enough to sacrifice her life for him mere moments after he was born. It made his heart ache, because he had lost her before he'd even had the chance to know her.

He looked at the picture again, at his mother's smiling face. Mother. He tried the word, curling his lips and tongue around it silently. Mom. Something warm filled his belly, and wet tears prickled at the corners of his eyes. Uzumaki Kushina. _Mom_.

He was struck by a sudden wild idea, then, to tear his father's face out of the picture, but he had barely considered it before his heart gave a shuddering, rebellious throb. He turned his eyes to his father's visage, smiling and brilliant as he rested one gentle hand on his wife's swollen belly, as proud as any father could be, and found he couldn't do it. Whatever else had happened, his father had loved him dearly, enough to sacrifice himself for his son's sake. And whatever else had happened, that counted for something. It had to.

He handled the picture gently, folding it back into the letter and holding it to his chest. This was his proof. This was the proof he had that his parents had loved him.

And that — that was worth everything.

"_Mom. __Dad. __I __love __you._"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Though Naruto had truly been frustrated that Jiraiya had left him alone in order to woo an attractive woman who had done nothing more than look in his direction, he was also sort of thankful. There had been no time to sit down and open the scroll about the Uchiha Massacre for the day and a half they had been walking on the road — no privacy to read it without Jiraiya looking over his shoulder when Naruto wasn't even sure exactly what he would find (and his curiosity refused to let Jiraiya see it before he did).

So, while a little upset about being blown off for a pretty face without even being given a technique to practice, the first thing Naruto had done when he got back to their shared hotel room was to lay the Uchiha Massacre scroll on his bed and roll it open. After glancing around one more time to make sure that no one else was around, he began to read.

It had only taken the first paragraph to make his stomach squirm.

But it was like a watching someone burn to death; once he had started, he couldn't stop reading, and the pit in his stomach grew and grew. His blood had turned cold and his fingers shook with horror. More than once, his stomach had threatened to rebel.

All those people…An entire clan…Gone, because the clan leaders had let their pride get the better of them. Pride — what a stupid thing to let your family die for. What a stupid thing to risk a civil war for.

When he got to the part about the Massacre itself, when Danzo went behind Sarutobi's back and ordered Itachi to kill the clan, and unrolled the scroll to read on, a carefully folded letter fell out. It was addressed to Uchiha Itachi. Naruto pocketed it and read on.

The Sandaime's report on the clan's deaths was brutal and detached, and Naruto suspected in the back of his mind that it was taken almost verbatim from what Itachi had probably said when he reported the incident. But the fact that it was unbiased and straightforward did nothing for the queasy feeling in Naruto's belly as he read the finer details of what had happened — thankfully, Itachi had not prolonged any of his kills. Each Uchiha who had died had died swiftly — most, in fact, had been killed in their sleep. Naruto could take a little comfort in that. It was hard enough to read all the gory details, but it would have been worse to read about these people being tortured and dying slow, painful deaths.

When he finished, Naruto rolled the scroll back up and hid it in his bag again. He wasn't quite sure what to think right then, whether he should be disillusioned with the man he had considered a grandfather or decide that what had happened was a necessary evil, done to protect the people of Konoha at the cost of one rebellious clan.

He wasn't sure how long he had been sitting there thinking when a knock sounded from the door. He rose from the bed and slung Hyôrinmaru back over his shoulder, and for all the turmoil boiling in his brain, he found comfort in the familiar icy chill that swept down his spine.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Naruto shouted as a second, much more insistent knock resounded throughout the room and echoed off of the walls. He reached up, twisted the lock, and pulled the door open.

Cool red Sharingan was what he saw first — and he only knew a single person who had the Sharingan in both eyes. But what was Sasuke doing here?

"Hello, Naruto-kun," but the voice was all wrong, too deep and too smooth. And he was too tall and his hair was too long and the clothing was too weird for Sasuke's taste. No, this wasn't Sasuke, and there was only one other Uchiha left besides Sasuke. This had to be Itachi, the one who had killed his entire clan in the space of a single night and spared only his little brother. But what was he doing here? "We'd like you to come with us."

A taller, blue-skinned man moved to stand next to him, gazing down at Naruto with a skeptical look, "Is this brat really the Kyubi's vessel?"

"Come out of the room," Itachi commanded, and Naruto felt himself obeying and stepping outside of the room's safety.

"Alright!" the blue man cried excitedly, grasping the yellow hilt of the object on his back. "Let's get this started. After all, we don't need him running away! Let's cut off a leg!"

Alarm bells went off inside of Naruto brain and he came to the sudden realization that he was in danger and there was no one there to help him. Hyôrinmaru was free and in his hand in a flash, and he swung at the smaller of his new enemies, who had no visible weapons with which to defend himself.

Itachi held up two fingers and blocked Hyôrinmaru effortlessly (Naruto should have expected it — S-Rank ninja were on a whole other level from guys like Neji). Then the calm, stoic look faded into a frown as blood trickled down his hand — a jolt of triumph leapt through Naruto's stomach. He might not have done much, but the fact that he had cut Itachi, even if it was only the equivalent of a paper cut, meant that Itachi could be cut, and that meant that Naruto had a chance, however small.

But a hallway was no place to be having a sword fight, and it was especially not a place to be using all of his incredibly destructive Ninjutsu. He needed to get them out of the hotel and out of the city.

He grinned and blurted out the first thing to come to mind. "Catch me if you can!"

He leapt backwards and thrust himself out and away with Shunpô, and the world around him blurred and flickered as he navigated his way through the hotel's halls and stairs, then across the streets and around the people, who would probably feel only a swift breeze as he passed. He did not need to look behind himself to know that Itachi and his blue-skinned partner were following him, and he paused only occasionally to stick his tongue out at them.

He screeched to a halt in a huge clearing just outside of the city. A large building stood at the edge of one side and a wall of trees guarded the other. A moment later, his pursuers landed across from him, undaunted and not even breathing hard. He took in a deep breath and wondered what it would take to beat them, and if he even could beat them.

"I guess you guys…wouldn't just leave, right?" he asked. Itachi's eyes narrowed and the blue-skinned man chuckled darkly. Naruto's fingers tightened around his sword. "Damn it. Why's all the crazy stuff gotta happen to me?"

He suddenly whipped through a set of hand seals and Itachi's eyes went wide for a moment, then he sped through a seal chain, too. The air around them condensed and shimmered, then formed into the shape of a dragon and leapt at the two men in black. "Suiton: Suiryûdan!" Naruto called.

But Itachi was prepared — "Suiton: Suijinheki!" — and a wall of water exploded out of the dirt and grass and protected him and his partner, then both techniques splashed uselessly to the ground. Shark-man started his own chain, but Naruto sped through another set and yanked control of the water that Itachi's sidekick had been shaping and used it himself.

"Sensatsu Suishô!" Naruto named it.

But, again, Itachi was faster, and a blazing wall of fire turned the needles into steam as Itachi spun on his heel and turned the Gôkakyû that Naruto had seen Sasuke use once or twice into a shield. It would have been amazing if it weren't such a pain in the ass.

Naruto was already halfway across the clearing by the time the last of the embers died down, and the blue-skinned man had just finished a set of hand seals. Bursting up from the ground was a geyser of water, which spun and twisted in the air to form a shark-like shape that dove in Naruto's direction.

"Suiton: Suikôdan!" (Water Shark Bullet)

Naruto leapt over the water shark's nose and carved a shallow gash into it. By the time his foot set down on its back, the entire thing had become a perfect ice sculpture, and Naruto used it as a springboard to launch himself into the air. He formed a single hand seal and beside him appeared a Kage Bunshin — just one. His Bunshin plummeted, aiming for Itachi, while the real Naruto gripped his sword with both hands and brought it down in a colossal slash that the shark-man blocked with the large, bandaged object that had been slung over his back. The object, whatever it was, held.

"Nice try, kid," shark-man grinned, "but you have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat one of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen in kenjutsu."

Naruto said nothing and planted a foot against the bandaged thing — it had to be a sword to have withstood that blow, or at least a big slab of steel — using it to vault himself over fish-man's head and land behind him. Fish-man didn't turn fast enough, because Naruto had already landed in a crouch and pivoted, swinging his sword upwards. There was no escape from the spiked crescent of ice that formed along the path of his blade and jutted outwards, not at that range.

"Zekku!"

But the skewered fish-man didn't fall to the ground dead and bleeding, he burst apart into water. A clone and a substitution — a basic trick that even the best ninja employed often and with great success.

The blow that came down for his head would have crushed another man, and had Naruto not lifted his sword to block it, he would have been crushed, too. As it was, his arms strained with the effort of keeping the monstrous slab of _whatever-__it-__was_ from descending further, and it didn't help to have the sudden influx of memories — his clone's memories, the clone that Itachi had just dispatched — burst to life in his brain. Fish-man's sword-thing pressed him down, down, down, slowly forcing him to his knees, and he knew that it would not be much longer before his arms gave out —

"Kisame," Itachi's voice said coldly, "we are not here to kill Naruto-kun."

Fish-man — Kisame — scoffed in annoyance, and the slab was suddenly lifted and Naruto was free of the oppressive weight as Kisame hefted it casually over his shoulder. He looked as though he wasn't concerned with the _enemy_ before him, as though he needn't worry because he was untouchable.

That would be his mistake.

The size and weight of Kisame's weapon put him at a disadvantage in a number of areas, because it was harder to swing, no matter that Kisame could hold it with one hand. Such a heavy sword needed a little bit of wind-up before it got any real speed, and once it got moving, it took a little while to stop, and that little while either before or after the swing meant the difference between whether or not you could block and whether or not you could stop yourself from overextending.

But Naruto's sword was much lighter — lighter, in fact, than any sword of such a length should be — and didn't need as much inertia behind it before it got fast, and Kisame was too close and his sword a little too slow to avoid Hyôrinmaru's razor sharp edge as Naruto swung for his gut.

In the end, it was Kisame's skill that made the difference between life and death.

The black cloth of Kisame's robe split open as though it were tissue paper, and red blood splattered along the grass. Naruto let out a breath through his nose, and Kisame, now several yards away, regarded the sticky red liquid on his fingers as the shallow cut on his belly, wide enough to have disemboweled him if it had gone even half an inch deeper, bled sluggishly.

"You got the drop on me, brat," Kisame said, and he sounded as though he didn't know whether to be impressed or upset.

"I do that a lot," Naruto said breathily.

Without so much as a warning, Naruto swung Hyôrinmaru's chain around, but Kisame back-flipped over it once, then again on its second pass. Naruto gave him no reprieve, and Kisame had not even landed yet before Naruto was digging swiftly through his hip pouch for Explosive Tags. His fingers found crinkled rice-paper.

It wasn't an Explosive Tag.

Naruto swung again and unleashed an ice dragon at Kisame, then spun around, searched out Itachi (who had been calmly watching the proceedings until that point), and leapt for him with his sword poised to stab. Itachi didn't move but for the twitch of his eye, and when Naruto came within range, Itachi grabbed hold of his sword arm and sent Hyôrinmaru sailing harmlessly past his hip.

But killing Itachi had never been Naruto's intention, and he was close enough, now, to whisper.

"I know the truth about the Massacre," Naruto hissed quietly (there was a sharp intake of breath). He pulled the folded note from his pouch and shoved it into the sleeve of Itachi's other arm. A calm, warm, steady hand found his fumbling fingers and took the note effortlessly. "Orders from the old man," he mumbled. "Don't know what they say."

Itachi gave no sign of acknowledgement.

"It was foolish of you to get so close, Naruto-kun," he said in his deadly soft voice. He'd spoken loud enough for Kisame to hear, no doubt to keep from blowing his cover. The strong steady hand that had held Naruto's sword arm left and glided along Hyôrinmaru's edge with _just_ the right amount of pressure. Itachi's hand lifted to reveal his bloodied palm and he pressed two fingers, dripping with his own life's essence, against Naruto's bare forehead. The blood that dribbled down into his eyes forced Naruto to blink.

"You don't know the full truth about the Massacre," Itachi muttered to him, so quiet that he almost didn't catch it, "but knowing even as much as you do will be hazardous for you later, so consider this my…insurance. I'll give you a bit of my power so that no man may alter your world with Genjutsu."

…what?

"What does that even _mean_?" Naruto hissed back.

There was no response; the Itachi standing in front of him burst apart into a flock of crows, and he had only a moment to gape in surprise before one of them swooped down and threw itself into his mouth and down his throat. He coughed and coughed, and though it definitely felt as though he had just swallowed a bird, there was no taste upon his tongue. He wanted to throw up, but he had not eaten since the night before, so his stomach was empty.

"You're sure this is the Kyubi brat?" Kisame asked skeptically. Itachi, the real Itachi, gave only a nod — they were enemies again.

"You're not getting away!" Naruto declared loudly, ignoring the fact that they hadn't been trying to in the first place. He whipped his hand out and a yellow rope made for Kisame. "Sajo Sabaku!"

Kisame dodged again, but Naruto was already prepared and made another gesture with his hand. "Rikujôkôrô!" he called.

Kisame could not dodge the six shafts of light that speared his midsection, holding him in place with his arms pinned by his sides, and Naruto started through more hand seals, but Itachi suddenly appeared in front of him, grasping his hand mid-seal with almost enough force to break his wrist. Almost.

And then Naruto was flying through the air with the grass a green blur beneath him as Hyôrinmaru's chain flailed wildly in the wind behind him. Kisame was suddenly free and moving and Naruto flipped in midair and shoved his feet down to the ground. It took all of his strength not to go tumbling ass over teakettle as he tore up two long gouges in the earth. He'd barely come to a stop before he lifted his sword and swung.

"Kongô Hokori!"

The wave of ice particles that gushed outwards was smaller than it had been in Bankai, but it was still large enough to swallow Kisame whole, and Naruto lost sight of his foe as he was consumed by the ice. His heart pounded in his chest. Had he done it? Was Kisame dead?

But when the dust settled, Kisame stood there with his large sword poised protectively in front of him, safe and untouched — and Naruto felt a brief flash of both inexplicable relief and frustration — undamaged but for the utterly disintegrated wrappings on his weapon. Naruto's attack had done nothing.

Wait.

Were those shark teeth?

"Pretty good, brat," Kisame said, grinning. "That might have actually killed me."

He lifted his sword (made of steel-blue _shark __teeth _of all things!) and dashed forward, "But let's see how you do against my Samehada for real!"

The attack never connected, because a plume of smoke erupted between Naruto and Kisame just as the massive Samehada was about to come smashing down, and the shark-tooth sword clanged against something hard and metallic. There, arms raised defensively, was a toad as tall as a man clad in steel gauntlets, chest plate, and pauldrons.

"You didn't think a man such as me would be seduced by a woman so easily, did you?" a familiar voice called haughtily. There was another plume of smoke that burst into life just behind Naruto, and standing there as the dust cleared was Jiraiya, grinning broadly with the woman who had winked at him slung over his shoulder.

"A man such as Jiraiya," he declared, "is not seduced by a beautiful woman! When you become a man as great as me, women are attracted by your beauty and greatness!" He struck a dramatic pose, one he must have thought was heroic and amazing. Naruto just thought he looked stupid.

Itachi did not look particularly impressed (but then, his expression hadn't changed much since the beginning of the fight anyway), and Kisame's smirk made it clear that he wasn't very impressed either. "So," he said slyly, "you really are _that_ Jiraiya, of the Densetsu no Sannin. I knew we couldn't hold you off that easily. Heh."

"It seems that you dispelled my Genjutsu," Itachi observed quietly.

"How shameful of you to use your doujutsu so underhandedly," Jiraiya's features suddenly turned serious and he set the woman down on the ground gently. When he stood again, his eyes were narrow and solemn and his mouth was pulled into a thin line. "So," he said, "you really are after Naruto, aren't you?"

Itachi closed his eyes briefly and gave a slow, shallow nod, as though he had just confirmed something to himself, "Then you are the one who told Kakashi. I see. That makes sense, then." His eyes snapped back open. "Kisame. We're leaving."

"Che," Kisame hefted Samehada back onto his shoulder. "Just when things were getting interesting."

They leapt out of the clearing and Jiraiya moved to follow as his summoned toad vanished, but Naruto threw out his arm to stop him. "Let them go," he said. Jiraiya gave him an odd look, but Naruto couldn't explain why they should let Itachi and Kisame go, why they had to let _Itachi_ go. Jiraiya didn't know the truth about the massacre, and Naruto wasn't sure enough about his own thoughts on the subject to tell Jiraiya about it yet. "We don't have time to chase them halfway around the country. We're here to find that Tsunade lady."

That seemed to work, because he felt Jiraiya relax and pull back. He let his arm drop and sheathed Hyôrinmaru, then turned back towards the city. Behind him, he heard Jiraiya chuckle beneath his breath, "Never thought I'd see the day when _you_ actually made _sense_."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

God or Fate or Destiny — whoever it was seemed to like giving Naruto very few breaks, because not five minutes had passed after he and Jiraiya returned to their room before the door slammed open again and Sasuke stood there, panting, out of breath, and so high strung that it was a miracle he had not started pulling out his hair.

"Naruto!" Sasuke declared desperately, and there was something in his tone that suggested both urgent concern and exasperated relief. He crossed the room in three stiff strides, grabbed Naruto's arm, and tried to pull him out the door. "Come, we've got to get you out of here!"

"Eh — Sasuke — what are you doing here?" Naruto asked bewilderedly. At any other time, he might have been embarrassed that Sasuke had barged in on him while he was busy packing up one of his spare pairs of underwear (which he held in his hands at that very moment), but he was more worried about that insistent hand that was trying to drag him forcibly from his spot.

Sasuke turned back towards him but didn't move his hand and snarled furiously, "We don't have time right now! We have to leave! Come _on_, Naruto!"

"Hey, Sasuke, are you feeling all right?"

"I'm _fine_!" Sasuke's lip curled angrily. "Let's _go__ — _"

"And where are we supposed to be going?" Naruto demanded, feeling a little angry now himself. "And more importantly, _why_ are we supposed to be going?"

"I _told_ you, I _don__'__t __have __time __to __explain __right __now_!" Sasuke gave another insistent tug, and a part of Naruto realized distantly that this was the angriest and most agitated he'd ever seen the normally composed Sasuke. "We have to get going before he gets here — _let__'__s __go,_Naruto!"

"He?" Naruto parroted bewilderedly. "Who's 'he'? Is someone after me?"

"I don't have — "

"Actually," Jiraiya's rumbling baritone interrupted suddenly, "I'd like to hear about this, too, Uchiha-chan." Sasuke bristled a little at being addressed so childishly, like his was only a five-year-old. It took Naruto a moment to realize that it was exactly that reaction Jiraiya had been hoping to provoke. "Is there something we should know?"

"I don't have time to explain, you old geezer!" Sasuke snapped impatiently.

Uh-oh. Insulting Jiraiya was a sure-fire way of getting him to do his silly introduction.

"Old geezer?" Jiraiya demanded as though the very thought were terrifying. "Do you not know who I am, Uchiha-chan?" Naruto could practically here the grinding of Sasuke's teeth. "I am the man without enemies in the north, south, east, and west!" Jiraiya began his dance, making long, ridiculous sweeping motions with his arms. "I am the Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku!" Hop, hop, hop. "Enemies tremble and women swoon at my very name! I am —" he slammed his foot down, rolled his head theatrically, and flashed a cocky grin that he must have thought looked dashing "— the Gallant Jiraiya!"

There was a moment of silence. Naruto turned to Sasuke. "I just call him Ero-Sennin," he said flatly.

Jiraiya had crossed the room in an instant and bopped Naruto on the head. Pain blossomed from where he'd been hit and Naruto's vision swam for a single instant. But _damn_ did Jiraiya pack a punch.

"Damn it, Naruto!" he declared tearfully. Naruto scowled at him as he rubbed the new bump on his head. "You ruined my introduction!"

"What_ever_!" Naruto said. "It's not important! Sasuke still hasn't told me who I'm supposed to be running away from!"

Sasuke's anger returned in a flash. "My brother, Itachi!" he revealed venomously. Both Naruto and Jiraiya jerked in surprise. "He's already got Kakashi, and now he's after you, so we have to _get __out __of __here_, Naruto!"

Naruto reeled. There'd been a confrontation between Kakashi and Itachi? Was he missing something?

"Wait," he began, "Itachi was just here — and — what happened to Kakashi-sensei?"

That would explain why Sasuke was alone.

"He'll be fine," Sasuke said, but he didn't sound too sure of himself, "it was just a Genjutsu! But you won't if — Itachi was already here?"

The switch was so sudden that Naruto couldn't prepare himself in time to stop Sasuke from grabbing him by his shoulders and shaking him furiously like he was a drink Sasuke was mixing — he was tempted to ask if Sasuke would prefer stirred instead. "Where is he?" Sasuke demanded loudly. "Where did he go? What did he want?"

"We fought him just outside the city," Naruto told him. Sasuke went deathly still and his grip on Naruto relaxed. "Ero-Sennin scared him and his blue-skinned sidekick off — Sasuke, where are you going?"

Sasuke had turned to leave, but not before Naruto had reached out and grabbed him by the wrist. A small part of him, the part of him that still wanted to prove he was better than Sasuke, loved the fact that Sasuke flinched under the strength of his grip.

"I'm going after him, to avenge my clan." The statement was delivered as though it was that simple, as though that was that and it was going to happen no matter what anyone did to stop it.

But the real world rarely worked that way.

"Whoa, hold up," Naruto squeezed a bit tighter. Sasuke's wince was obvious. "Lemme get this straight. You wanna go after your brother, who killed your entire clan in a single night by himself, and you plan to attack him and his gill-faced partner — one of the Hidden Mist's Seven Swordsmen, by the way, nearly bashed my skull in — all by yourself with nothing more than a handful of fire jutsu and the Chidori?"

"Naruto — "

"Cause that ain't revenge, Sasuke, that's suicide."

Sasuke scowled, but relaxed and turned back around. Naruto let him go and could see just how much Sasuke _hated_ the fact that he was right, but Sasuke could hate him all he wanted as long as he didn't do something incredibly stupid — because if he did do something stupid, it was Naruto who would have to tell Sakura, and Sakura had the nasty habit of shooting the messenger (as long as the messenger had blonde hair and blue eyes).

"Fine," Sasuke said at last. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Then I'm coming with you guys. That way, if Itachi tries again, I'll be there."

"Oh, no you're not!" Jiraiya jumped back into the conversation. He drew himself up imperiously. "You, boy, are going back to the village and sitting tight, or else you're liable to be declared a nuke-nin! You want to get revenge on your brother? Your first step is making sure you're not executed for abandoning your post during wartime! And that means taking your prissy little butt back home and waiting until you have another assignment!"

Naruto blinked and had the sudden mental image of Jiraiya as a rooster sticking his chest out to intimidate a chick into obedience. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"But I —"

"You heard me! Go! Go! Go!"

Sasuke's face contorted into an expression of the blackest hate, then he turned around and stomped out of the room furiously. Naruto sighed and palmed his face — somehow, this was all going to wind up backfiring on _him_ and _he_ was going to have to deal with all of the fallout of Mount Sasuke's quiet eruption — and, later on, Mount Sakura's loud and violent eruption — all by himself, he just knew it.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto and Jiraiya checked out of their hotel early the morning after the confrontations with Sasuke and Itachi, and by midday had made their way to the next town over. The streets there were bustling with activity, and Naruto found himself wishing he had three more pairs of eyes so he could take in everything at once. There was so much stuff to look at, from masks to games of luck and chance to food stalls selling exotic things like squid-on-a-stick.

"All right," Jiraiya said suddenly as he fished about in his own backpack. He pulled out a canvas bag and from the bag produced a colorfully patterned water balloon about the size of an apple. He tossed it to Naruto, who caught it and eyed it dubiously, then pulled out one of his own. "I'm going to go look for information on Tsunade. In the meantime, you'll be doing some training…on that jutsu I promised you."

He held out his left hand, and in it formed a glowing sphere of blue chakra with hundreds of rotating currents going in every conceivable direction. Naruto watched it with amazement, and then it dissipated and Jiraiya let his hand drop. He held out his other hand next, the one with the water balloon, and Naruto watched as the calm, smooth surface suddenly came to life, bulging in every which direction and contorting grotesquely, slowly at first and then faster and faster until it burst.

"This technique is called 'Rasengan'," Jiraiya explained, and another sphere of swirling chakra formed above his now wet right hand. "You learn it in three stages, and the first is what I just showed you with that water balloon. Combining the tree-climbing exercise, where you release a certain amount of chakra, with the water-walking exercise, where you release a constant amount of chakra, you create the Rasengan. For this first step, you release a certain amount of charka and maintain that amount constantly, then force it into a rotation to break the water balloon. Understand?"

"Yep," Naruto grinned. "Just you watch. I'll pop this balloon in no time!"

"All right, then," Jiraiya grinned back and dropped the bag of water balloons into Naruto's arms. "Good luck!"

And then he was gone, and Naruto was standing alone in the crowded street as people milled around him without a care. Naruto scowled, glaring in the direction Jiraiya had left, then sighed and shrugged. Nothing for it, then, he decided, and he turned around to find a private area to train.

To Naruto's good fortune, it seemed, he found a small park near the outer edge of the town, and it was completely empty. It looked like everyone else was busy at the festival — probably the leftovers of Umi no Hi or some regional holiday. Whatever the case, it worked out best for him, because he had nothing to disturb his training. He set the bag of balloons down by a tree, walked into a clear patch of land, and began.

His original estimations were way off.

Popping the water balloon was a difficult task, because it didn't seem to want to work no matter what he did. Nothing he tried worked, and even his best spin served to do nothing except force the balloon into a disk shape. By the end of the second day of training, his hands were shaking from the strain of forcing so much chakra through them — he couldn't even hold a pair of chopsticks properly.

But his hard work and determination did pay off — after three days of training, with stops only for the essentials, like food, water, sleep, and using the bathroom, he finally figured out how to do it. Hyôrinmaru, who had remained obstinately silent during his training, had finally given him a hint: try rotating his chakra in more than one direction.

With a loud pop, the water balloon burst in his hand and soaked his shaking fingers. His face pulled into an exhausted but triumphant grin.

It took Naruto four tries to form the proper hand seals before he managed it and a Kage Bunshin popped into life. "Go find Ero-Sennin," he told it tiredly. "Tell him I did it."

The Kage Bunshin snapped off a sarcastic salute and bounded back into town. Naruto sat down, leaned against the back of the nearest tree, and closed his eyes to take a short rest. An icy numbness trickled down his spine and into his arms, soothing the burning ache of his overstressed hands and fingers. A relieved sigh hissed out his lips.

"Thanks, Hyôrinmaru," he mumbled. A hum that reverberated in the back of his mind answered him.

Naruto wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there, but he'd dozed off for at least ten minutes and was halfway asleep when something foreign — _fear, __falling, __ground-getting-bigger_ — jerked him awake and he was suddenly sitting ramrod straight as his heart pounded a tattoo against his ribs.

"What the hell was that?" he breathed. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, summoning the foreign _whatever-it-was_ to the forefront of his brain. The answering memories came in a jumble — walking through the village, wandering around, finding Jiraiya, telling him about the first step, turning to lead him back and tripping over someone's leg — "Wait. Are those…my Kage Bunshin? But, how…?"

Come to think of it, hadn't something similar happened during his fight with Kisame? And…and, wait, in the forest, when Sakura punched him. Then, too, right?

He frowned and stood, and when he made the hand seal, his fingers were no longer shaking and his arms no longer burned. With a pop, another Kage Bunshin appeared before him, blinking curiously. He handed it a kunai and said, "Go over behind that tree over there and carve something into it, then dispel yourself. Don't tell me what," he added as it opened its mouth, "just do it."

It shrugged, then walked casually behind the tree and vanished from his sight. Ten minutes and a puff of smoke later, more memories flooded his brain — the clone had chosen "Minato and Kushina Forever."

"Whoa," Naruto blinked and sat down. "That's like…Whoa. Can you imagine the kind of training I could get done that way? Ha! If I'd made a hundred Kage Bunshin and gave them each a water balloon to pop — hey! Why didn't I realize this earlier?"

"That's what I've been wondering, kid."

Naruto jumped to his feet and lifted his eyes to meet Jiraiya's grinning face. "Ero-Sennin!" he shouted. One finger was outstretched and pointing at his teacher. "When did you get here?"

"Just a minute ago," Jiraiya replied. "So, what's this, now? Not only have you figured out the Kage Bunshin trick, but you've also mastered the first stage of the Rasengan?"

"Oh!" Naruto spun around and pulled a water balloon from the bag, then brandished it like a trophy, grinning. A moment later, the balloon contorted and expanded, then popped and splashed water all over his hand. Jiraiya looked vaguely impressed.

"Good job," he said. He gave Naruto a short applause, then reached into his backpack and pulled out a plain beige rubber ball the size of his palm. He tossed it to Naruto, who caught it bewilderedly. "Now, stage two is to pop that rubber ball. The first stage emphasized rotation. This one emphasizes power. Think you can do it?"

"Easy!" Naruto declared. He held up the ball and poured his chakra into it, then sent the chakra rotating and spinning. The rubber ball contorted and expanded, but did not pop. Naruto blinked and stopped. Jiraiya barked out a laugh. He pulled another bag from his backpack and set it down, and Naruto could see that it contained nothing but rubber balls.

"Here you go," Jiraiya declared simply. "If you happen to need more rubber balls, go ahead and use these. We head out again the day after tomorrow. See you tonight!" And he left.

"Che, who do you think I am, Ero-Sennin?" Naruto grumbled. He put his fingers in a hand seal, and in an instant, thirty Kage Bunshin stood around him. "All right!" he called out to them. "Each of you grab a rubber ball and get to work!"

"Ossu!" they answered in unison.

But having his clones help did not seem to make it go any faster than before. Even three days later, with thirty Kage Bunshin trailing behind him as he followed Jiraiya down the road, Naruto had not yet managed to properly pop the rubber ball. Every night, he went to bed with his fingers and arms shaking uncontrollably. It was not until dusk a day later, four days after starting stage two, that, with a final triumphant shout, the obstinate rubber ball burst. Jiraiya looked back at him as his Kage Bunshin all congratulated his success, and grinned.

"Oh," he said, "so you finally managed stage two, did you?"

"Yep," Naruto answered with a grin. Behind him, a chorus of pops rang out as all of his clones managed the second stage and dispelled one at a time with a victorious shout. "Easy."

"So it seems." Jiraiya pulled out a balloon, and Naruto could see from the way it sat on his hand that it was filled with air, not water. "But this is step three."

Naruto watched, and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Nothing happened. The balloon was untouched, pristine, and there didn't seem to be anything going on beyond the fact that it was just sitting there in his hand.

"Ne, Ero-Sennin, are you feeling all right?" Naruto asked. "Nothing's happening."

"It might look like nothing's happening," Jiraiya said. He lifted his other hand and formed a Rasengan. "In actuality, however, this is what's happening inside the balloon. Step three, Naruto, is creating a thin layer of chakra and compressing the hurricane of currents you learned to make in steps one and two into that thin layer — all inside the balloon. The third stage is complete when you can form the Rasengan inside a balloon without popping it."

"I'll have it done in no time!" Naruto declared. He picked up a balloon, grasped it in his hand, and focused, letting the swirling chakra rise up inside him. He let it leak out his palm, spinning and rotating, and then tried to form the thin shell of chakra as Jiraiya had demonstrated. For a single moment, there was silence and calm, then the balloon contorted, bulging and expanding, and burst apart. There was another moment of silence, broken when a growl bubbled up in his chest and rumbled out his throat.

"Damn it!"

"Keep up the good work, Naruto!" Jiraiya laughed. "But don't stay up too late! I want to make it to Tanzaku Gai by noon tomorrow!"

POP!

"Damn it!"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The remains of a decimated castle lay before him, broken and destroyed utterly. Only bits of stone and wooden planks were left. It looked like it had been struck by a natural disaster, but no natural disaster would have been nearly so selectively devastating. A hurricane or earthquake would have reduced the entire town to rubble, not just the castle. The only thing Naruto could think of, then, to explain exactly what had happened was a summoned animal — though he had never seen the Toad Boss himself, he knew it was massive — or a transformed Jinchûriki, like Gaara.

"_This_ is Tanzaku Gai?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya nodded solemnly.

"This has Tsunade written all over it," he said calmly. A frown creased his lips. "By the way, how far have you gotten on that Rasengan?"

"I'm still having a bit of trouble with stage three, but it shouldn't take me much longer to figure it out," Naruto glanced at Jiraiya. "Should we really be discussing my progress when we're searching for Tsunade?"

"No, I suppose not," Jiraiya admitted. He looked up at the sun, which hung low in the sky. He mumbled something about wishing they'd gotten to town sooner, but didn't say anything else about it. "But it's too late in the day to do much of anything, so let's go eat some dinner, huh?"

Naruto frowned as his stomach gave a telling rumble, but followed Jiraiya as he led the way to a nearby restaurant. The moment he set foot inside, his nose was assaulted with the smell of cooked fish, rice, and the low undercurrent of sake. No one seemed to take notice of their entrance, even though they must have looked quite the sight (a tall old man with long white hair and a blonde haired kid with a sword strapped to his back — if that was considered normal, Naruto wondered if he should start worrying about the state of the world).

"Speak of the devil," Jiraiya muttered suddenly. He was looking at something that Naruto couldn't quite see, his eyes narrowed. Not for the first time, Naruto cursed the fact that he was one of the shortest people in his graduating class.

Jiraiya's posture straightened from his usual half-slouch as he grinned and waved and called out cheerfully, "Tsunade-hime!"

A blonde woman shot up from the crowd, leaned forward over her table, and stared, startled, at the two of them. "Jiraiya?" she asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

Naruto kept his eyes locked on her as he and Jiraiya wiggled their way through the crowd and into the seats on the opposite side of Tsunade's table. When he'd first heard of her, when Jiraiya had told him she was his teammate, Naruto had imagined a wrinkled old woman about Jiraiya's age. The woman before him, however, was beautiful and couldn't have been older than twenty-six.

Then there was the girl who sat with Tsunade, and she seemed to be about Kakashi's age, if he were any accurate a guess. She looked sort of timid and nervous, like she didn't often speak up out of turn or like she was expecting something to go wrong. Next to her sat a _pig_ of all things, and when the waiter brought them food, the pig stuck its nose into the bowl and dug in unceremoniously.

"Itadakimasu," Naruto clasped his hands and mumbled. He broke his chopsticks apart and started with the fish. If it had been up to him, he would have had ramen, but it was not, sadly, on the menu.

Beside him, Jiraiya sat silently. He picked up a plain white clay pitcher, and there was a slight smirk on his face as he poured saucer after saucer of sake for Tsunade, who downed them all almost as fast as he could pour them. She must have had incredible tolerance to alcohol.

It felt sort of strange to eat so quietly — there had never been a moment of peace traveling with Jiraiya, except when Naruto was too busy training to talk or when Jiraiya was out womanizing and partying. Besides those (admittedly common) exceptions, they were usually arguing or making conversation about some thing or another. It was sort of like having someone to be your father, older brother, and uncle all rolled into one — no especially authoritarian moments, but enough scolding and lectures for it to feel like there were limits to what Naruto was allowed to do.

"Today…" Tsunade broke the awkward silence suddenly. "I met with someone who brings back a lot of bad memories."

"Orochimaru, you mean?" Jiraiya asked. Naruto's focus suddenly homed in on Tsunade, and she gave him a short, dismissive glance out of the corner of her eyes. "Did anything happen?"

Tsunade shot a quick glare at her companion, then responded nonchalantly, "Nothing much. Just a little greeting."

She gave Jiraiya a look.

"You're here, too," she pointed out. "Why? What's the reason for this unexpected reunion?"

There was a pregnant pause, then Jiraiya fixed her with a serious look and told her, "Konoha's Elder Council has issued a request for you to become the Godaime Hokage."

Both Tsunade and her sidekick gave a start, and their eyes went wide. Naruto shot Jiraiya an incredulous stare, then looked back and forth between him and Tsunade, wondering if he had heard right. This blonde woman was going to become Hokage? Why hadn't he been told?

"The Third," Jiraiya looked down sadly. "Sarutobi-sensei is…"

"Orochimaru told me," Tsunade interjected stonily. "It was his work."

"You met with Orochimaru?" Naruto asked her heatedly. "And you didn't kill him? After he told you he killed the old man?"

"Who is this brat?" Tsunade asked Jiraiya. She ignored Naruto pointedly.

"He's Uzumaki…"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto interrupted. He was on his feet and out of his chair, jabbing a thumb at his chest proudly. He would _not_ let her ignore him, "and I—!"

"And he's made it his personal mission to kill Orochimaru," Jiraiya added firmly. He pulled Naruto back into his seat and gave him a stern glare. Naruto stuck out his tongue but turned back to his food anyway. There was no reason to let good food go to waste. He'd let Jiraiya handle her for now; his stomach demanded attention. "So, what's your answer?"

There was a long pause, as though she was thinking about it, considering the offer, then, "I decline."

"What?" Naruto stood up again and leveled his mightiest glare her way. Food could wait. This lady refusing to be Hokage was _way_ more important. "Konoha offers you the position of Hokage on a silver platter and you simply turn it away like yesterday's news? Damn you! Don't just toss it aside like that!"

Tsunade's chuckle was derisive and dismissive and it made his blood burn, "Jiraiya, this brat is worse than your previous student…in terms of looks, speech, and intelligence."

"It's hard to compete with the Fourth…" Jiraiya started. Naruto fumed at being waved off again, but sat back down. He wouldn't let her get to him, he told himself. "He had the talent. Talent that only comes alone once per generation. He was like me: smart, reliable, and handsome!"

"But even the Fourth died quickly," Tsunade added. "He sacrificed himself for his village. Life is different from money. It can't be gambled so easily, and whoever does so is a fool. My grandfather and his brother were fools, too. They hoped to bring peace to the world, but they died before they could."

Naruto's chopsticks broke with an audible snap, and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from blowing up at her. _Calm __down_, he told himself. _They__'__re __just __words._ But it wasn't working, and even Hyôrinmaru's hissed admonishments went unnoticed.

Jiraiya frowned at her over the edge of his sake dish, "You've changed, Tsunade."

"Age changes people," she waved her hand, as if brushing off the question, "but only a fool would be Hokage. Sarutobi-sensei was the same. When an old man tries to act brave, he'll get himself killed."

Plates and food jumped off the table as Naruto tried to jump over it, fist raised and poised to smash her face in. Jiraiya's fingers, however, were curled in the back of his vest and around Hyôrinmaru's sheath, and no matter how hard he struggled, Naruto could not get free. He settled for the angriest glare he could manage as a snarl curled on his lips.

"Let me go, Ero-Sennin!" Naruto growled. "_No __one_ says that about Tousan or Ossan!"

"You do realize we're in a bar, don't you?" Jiraiya asked rhetorically.

"I don't care if we're in a bar or in the middle of an open field! I don't care if she's supposed to be the new Hokage! I don't care if she's a woman!" Naruto hissed. "I'm going to beat the shit out of her!"

Tsunade shot up out of her seat and planted one foot on the table as her right hand found her hip and her left rested on her knee. "You've got guts to say that to me," she told him with a confident smirk on her face. Her cheeks were rosy and she was obviously drunk. "Let's take this outside!"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

It was sort of like an official duel, the kind Naruto had heard about in stories, where the two combatants started ten yards away from each other and it was up to them to close the distance. There was something about fairness involved, if he remembered those samurai tales right, so that each opponent could prepare themselves mentally and physically for the fight ahead.

The one thing it did do, though, was let Naruto cool off enough to give his approach some thought. The big stuff was out; stuff like Suiryûdan, Daibakufu, and Bakusui Shoha would probably flood the entire town, and he didn't have anywhere near enough money to pay for that kind of collateral damage. He'd be stuck with his smaller stuff — the only problem was, he didn't really have much in the way of smaller stuff. Even a number four Hadô could be downright devastating if it had enough power behind it.

Tsunade smirked at Naruto and held up her right index finger. "I've been one of the Sannin since before you were even born," she informed him cockily. "I don't have to take this seriously. One finger should do."

Naruto wondered angrily when people would stop underestimating him.

"I wouldn't be so quick to judge, Tsunade-hime," Jiraiya warned her. "He shows even more promise than Minato-kun did."

"If you won't take me seriously," Naruto said heatedly as he yanked his sword from its sheath. "Then I'll just have to force you!"

Then he was in front of her, and he had a moment to see her eyes go wide as he swung downwards. Then she was moving, ducking inside his guard and poking his arm with that single finger hard enough to send it jerking backwards. Suddenly off balance, Naruto took a step backwards to regain his footing as she reached into his kunai holster and pulled one free with that same finger. She spun it into a reverse grip and swung upwards, letting the kunai go soaring into the sky as a cut formed on Naruto's left cheek, crossing over each of his whisker marks. If she'd wanted to, she could have jammed it through his chin and into his brain, a part of him realized. Naruto took his second step backwards and pushed himself back into balance with his heel.

But she was too fast. By the time he managed to get his footing back, she had already lifted a finger and poised it at his forehead. He had only a second's warning before she flicked him — _flicked_ him, of all things, he couldn't believe it — and he was sent tumbling backwards as he tried to keep his grip on his sword. When he came to a stop, he was face down in the dirt and his head was throbbing.

"Why are you so obsessed with the Hokage title?" Tsunade's voice asked him.

Naruto slowly pushed himself to his feet. The cut on his cheek had already sealed over and was halfway through healing, and Naruto rejected Hyôrinmaru's offer of assistance. In a real battle, where there were lives on the line and he couldn't afford to lose, he would never dare. But this wasn't a real battle. No one was going to die, not unless Orochimaru popped up out of the ground (which wasn't entirely impossible, he realized absently). No, this was a matter of pride. He was going to kick her ass. _No __one_ got away with bad mouthing the two men who had made him who he was.

"Unlike you, I'm definitely going to be Hokage. Without a doubt. Absolutely," he told her lowly. "Because being Hokage…that's my dream!"

Tsunade looked down distractedly, and she looked like she was reliving some painful, bittersweet memory. She was completely open.

"Sajo Sabaku!" Naruto snapped off. Thick chains of yellow energy wound around her arms, and _that_, if nothing else, seemed to catch her attention. "Bakudô no Rokujuu-ichi: Rikujôkôrô!" (Locking Bondage Stripes and Six-Staff Light Prison)

Six thin, broad beams of light slammed into her on top of the yellow chains. She frowned down at them and started to stretch her arms outwards. His two Kidô began to groan ominously, and he took only a short moment to wonder just how strong she had to be to break one of his strongest binding combos so quickly before he started on the main course. (He wished very briefly that Hyôrinmaru had taught him stronger Bakudô, like something in the higher seventies, or even something in the eighties or nineties; his un-incanted sixties level Bakudô were getting broken left, right, and center.)

"Ruler!" he called. He noticed Jiraiya perk up out of the corner of his eyes. "The mask of flesh and bone! All creation, flutter of wings! Ye who bears the name of man! Truth and temperance, upon this wall of sinless dreams, unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws! Hadô no Sanjuu-san: Sôkatsui!" (Blue Firefall)

The burst of blue flames that shot from his outstretched hand was larger than he remembered, and he was glad in that instant that he had not chosen something more powerful, because his Sôkatsui took up nearly the entire alleyway as it was. Anything bigger or stronger could have done some serious damage.

At that moment, Tsunade broke free. She lifted her arm up and struck downwards, and the ground beneath her rumbled and caved, and a large chunk of earth and rock jutted upwards in front of her. Naruto's Sôkatsui splashed harmlessly against it and fizzled out. Just like that, she'd blocked a fully incanted mid-level Hadô. The Sannin were unreal.

"Not done yet!" Naruto declared. He swung his sword down and sent a wave of ice spikes in her direction. "Guncho Tsurara!"

But she lifted the block of earth she'd made moments before and held it up as a shield, and it blocked his icicles like they were nothing. The moment the last one had crashed uselessly against the stone, she hefted it up and threw it in his direction as though it were weightless.

His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth as he held out his left hand, gathering chakra as quickly as he could and sending it spinning. He hadn't mastered it yet, but it would have to do. Destroying it with another Kidô would leave him far too open.

The rock came down and he threw his hand forward, thrusting his half-complete Rasengan into the boulder. It exploded outwards, sending clods of dirt and stone flying every which way. An instant later, he formed the Rasengan again as best he could and leapt towards her through the dust and debris.

He came upon her, and her eyes were wide, and he could see it, he was going to beat her. Then she dodged, leaning out of the way and grabbing his forearm (and Itachi had done the same thing — was there some sort of convention S-Rank ninja went to just to learn this stuff?). She pressed her thumb into his skin and his hand suddenly went numb. Behind her, the Rasengan exploded outwards and carved a spiraling gouge into the earthen street. She snapped her knee up into his stomach and the air in his lungs burst out of his mouth, and he _couldn__'__t__breathe_ — then he was flying and skidding across the ground and his chest hurt and his hand was consumed by pins and needles and he knew he'd lost.

"Jiraiya!" Tsunade's voice barked suddenly. Naruto blinked wildly and tried desperately to force air into his lungs. _Breathe_, he told himself, _breathe!_ "What were you thinking, teaching a kid like that the Rasengan?"

"Well, I _am _his teacher, even if only in principle," Jiraiya said calmly. There was only the slightest touch of sarcasm in his tone.

"Only you and the Fourth could ever use that technique. To pretend you're his master and try to teach him something he'll never be able to learn, you're a fool," she replied venomously. "It's better if he doesn't think that way, so that he won't joke about idiotic dreams like 'becoming Hokage'."

Naruto felt the anger boiling up inside him again, and it was through sheer tenacious force of will that he managed to drag himself to his knees. It wasn't a joke, and he wasn't about to let her belittle his dream. He would become Hokage. He would master the Rasengan.

"It's not a joke, you old hag!" Naruto wheezed as loudly as he could as he tried to pull himself to his feet. It took a supreme amount of effort. "Give me three days and I'll have it done! I guarantee it!"

Tsunade's eyebrow twitched and a slow, malicious smirk curled on her lips. "Is that a bet?"

Oh, it was _on_. He'd never lost a bet yet. Naruto grinned nastily, "What are the stakes?

"I'll give you one week," she held up a finger for emphasis. "If you can master the Rasengan in that time, I'll acknowledge your skill and give this necklace."

"Tsunade-sama!" the attendant's voice cried in the background. She went ignored.

Tsunade thumbed the pendant around her neck, "But if you lose, all your money is mine. Deal?"

He didn't even need to think about it.

"Deal."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Later that night, Tsunade's younger assistant — Shizune, he thought her name was — knocked on the door to his hotel room. When he opened it up to greet her, she was hunched over and her brow was knit worriedly. It was like she was scared of being caught out after bedtime. "I'm sorry for coming here so late," she whispered. "I need to talk to you for a minute, Naruto-kun."

Naruto hummed and cocked his head to the side. He supposed that there wasn't any harm in it. "All right," he said, "but I can't stay up too late. I gotta get up in the morning for training."

"I know," Shizune said, "and I'm sorry, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea about Tsunade-sama. And…and also…about that necklace."

Naruto scoffed.

"Whatever," he said flippantly. He walked back and sat down on his bed, arms crossed. Shizune followed him inside and closed the door behind her quietly. "Doesn't make a difference to me. I'll win that old hag's bet, and you'd better believe it."

"Tsunade-sama isn't the person you think she is! Please don't talk about her like that when you don't even know anything about her!" Shizune snapped suddenly. She blinked and bit her lip nervously, then glanced quickly at the door. When no one burst through it a few seconds later, some of the tension in her shoulders left. Naruto wondered what had her so high strung. "I'm sorry I shouted," she muttered timidly.

There was a moment of silence. Naruto wasn't exactly sure what to say.

"She wasn't always like this," Shizune told him finally. "A long time ago, she was a kind person who loved the village. But…ever since that day…" she looked down sadly. "She's changed."

Naruto frowned and straightened. What was this, now? "That day?" he prompted quietly.

"The day she lost her dream, her love, and her hope," she said helplessly. "The only thing left is that necklace, filled with so many memories…To Tsunade-sama, that necklace is more important than her life. It's not something she should use in a bet."

Naruto snorted. "That's her problem. I don't really care one way or the other."

"It's not that simple!" Shizune said with sudden frustration. "Tsunade-sama is the only person who can safely wear that necklace! It's cursed! Any other person who tries to wear it…will die."

She went on to explain it all, about how Tsunade had first given the necklace to her little brother, who later died, and how she'd given it a second time to her lover, a man by the name of Dan (Shizune's uncle), but Dan had died, too, and there had been nothing Tsunade, for all her medical skills, had been able to do about it.

"Do you understand now, Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked afterwards. "Ever since that day, Tsunade-sama has done nothing but wanderer. She has no direction and no drive, and there's nothing you can do. You can't win, because if you do…Tsunade-sama can't have your death on her conscience."

Cold anger, much calmer than usual, settled in Naruto's belly, and he stood, slipping Hyôrinmaru over his shoulder, and moved towards the door. Shizune didn't move; she only watched him, a look of uncertain confusion about her face.

"Naruto-kun?" she asked as he twisted the doorknob. "Where are you going?"

He fixed her with a cold blue stare. "I'm going to train," he said quietly.

Her face fell and she looked as though all her efforts must have been for naught, and he must have seemed incredibly heartless to her just then. He didn't care. Tsunade could suffer as much as she liked if that's what she wanted, but the moment she insulted his heroes and spit on his dream, he had to take a stand. Enough was enough.

Shizune didn't stop him.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The clearing Naruto wound up choosing as his training field was rather sparsely forested and had only a handful of short, skinny trees that were widely spread out. The grass beneath his feet was thin and patchy, and there were large sections where there was only dirt and rock. Behind him, cutting the clearing in half, was a stream about five feet wide and just as deep, and not far away was a fifteen foot cliff over which that stream flowed and fell. It wasn't exactly an ideal place for a picnic, but it fit his needs just fine.

At the beginning of the week, the clearing was mostly untouched. But at the end of the week, as Naruto stared triumphantly at his handiwork and his Kage Bunshin vanished with a series of pops, and a surge of pride swelled in his belly, the clearing around him had undergone drastic changes.

The majority of the trees around the clearing, particularly the one standing in front of Naruto, had been almost utterly demolished. Most of them had been snapped in half, and broken twigs and branches were scattered about the ground. Those trees that still stood were misshapen and deformed. Great big craters the size of cannonballs had been gouged into the wood, as though someone had simply dug into them and scooped up as much of the trunk as they could.

Naruto turned to the last sturdy tree, the only one he hadn't touched during his training, and held out his hand. The last tree stood firm as a sphere of swirling blue chakra formed above his palm. As soon as it was complete, Naruto surged forwards and thrust the sphere into the tree's trunk. There was a groaning, high-pitched whine and the bark and wood began to give. "Rasengan!"

The ball of chakra sunk into the tree and vanished, and there in front of Naruto's palm was a hole that would surely have cut a human being in half. The tree gave an ominous moan, then shuddered and the last hair-thin strands of fibrous tissue gave way. The upper half fell backwards and landed on the ground with a slam. The bottom half stretched forlornly towards the sky, but reached no further than Naruto's waist.

Naruto stared down at his palm and experimentally stretched his fingers. He'd done it, then, hadn't he? He'd mastered the Rasengan. He formed it again and it was perfect, shining and blue and powerful, then let it go and it dispersed like dust in the wind. He'd mastered the Rasengan.

He'd won the bet.

Now what? The question echoed in his head. Now what? He'd mastered the Rasengan, so he'd won the bet. It was too late at night to go and show it off right then (and he didn't know where Tsunade was anyway; he had no intention of spending half the night looking for her). Jiraiya was probably out at some brothel or strip club. So what was there to do?

The answer was actually simple: nothing.

There was no point in searching out either of the Sannin, not so late in the night, and there wasn't really anything else to train right then and there, so there wasn't really anything else to do. He'd might as well just go back to his hotel room and get a good night's sleep. Everything else could be handled tomorrow.

Yeah, actually. That sounded pretty good. A good night's sleep.

Something prickled on the edge of his senses as he turned to leave, and he stopped to look for whatever it was. He cast his gaze around the clearing and strained his ears for the slightest disturbance. Nothing. He found nothing, not across the land littered with broken trees and long gouges, nor across the stream or the pile of shattered branches, or even among the boulders that had been ground to dust. He squinted at the cliff. Maybe that was…No, there was nothing.

It must have been his imagination.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto woke to the sun shining in his eyes early the next morning. He blinked and rubbed his eyes as he sat up, then stretched and yawned before he stood and dressed. As he slipped his sash and Hyôrinmaru over his shoulder, however, and turned towards the door, he saw Shizune lying on the bed next to his atop the covers. She was dressed in her usual kimono and looked as though she had fallen asleep waiting for him to wake up.

"Hey, Shizune," he put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a little shake. She didn't move. "Shizune, wake up."

He gave her another shake and her face scrunched up, then she suddenly lurched upwards and it was only Naruto's leaping out of the way that prevented her head from slamming into his mouth. He liked his teeth where they were, thank you very much.

"Naruto-kun?" she mumbled as she rubbed her forehead. Then she froze and looked at him with the most frantic expression on her face. "What time is it?" She shook her head. "No, no, what day of the week is it?"

Naruto frowned. "Sunday," he told her.

"You're up already?" she asked incredulously. He cocked his head at her curiously so she explained. "Tsunade-sama said you tired yourself out last night, so you wouldn't be awake another day or two."

"I feel fine," he said frankly. "A good night's sleep has cured most of my injuries and stuff since I was a kid. But now that you mention her, where is that old hag? I've got a bet to win."

"So…you completed that jutsu?" she asked.

"Yep," he grinned at her. "Finished it last night."

"Last night, huh?" she started to chuckle, but winced a second later. Then she was on her feet and heading for the window. "Naruto-kun," she called over her shoulder, "please stay here!"

She had barely flung the window open before a kunai flew in front of her and embedded itself in the window frame. Naruto couldn't see how close it had come, but as he joined her at the window, he figured it must have missed her because she hadn't pitched sideways or anything like that.

Her head was turned to the side when he reached her and he heard her whisper, "You're…"

"What's going on?" he asked as he leaned over to see what she had seen. There, slouched against the wall on the awning was Jiraiya, and he was panting and heaving as though he had just run all the way from Konoha.

"Wait, Shizune," he wheezed out and lifted his hand weakly.

Naruto and Shizune were out the window moments later and helping him sit without collapsing all together. Every little thing seemed to take him a supreme amount of effort, and it was a miracle he had managed to reach their hotel room without bowling over a sign or something on the way (though Naruto was a little skeptical that he hadn't at least knocked over a pedestrian or two).

"Damn that Tsunade," Jiraiya cursed lowly. "She put something in my sake. I can't mold chakra or throw knives correctly, and my whole body is numb."

Naruto felt like saying that it served him right for drinking and partying all the time, but kept his mouth shut. Jiraiya went on, "Regardless of her current state, she's still a medical specialist. Someone like her could probably make a colorless, odorless, tasteless drug that works on ninjas in her sleep. I just didn't expect her to find a chance to poison me, even if I was a little drunk."

Shizune suddenly stood and went back inside, leaving Naruto and Jiraiya alone in silence. Naruto thought of showing Jiraiya the completed Rasengan, but it felt so out of place then and there that he hadn't even lifted his hand all the way before he let it drop back down to his side.

Shizune returned moments later with a pitcher and a glass full of water. She handed the glass to Jiraiya, who drank it all in three large gulps, then held it out for more. "Jiraiya-sama," she said as she poured another glass, "how are you feeling?"

"Better than I did at dawn," he answered. "But even then, I'm only at about a third of my usual strength."

Jiraiya's head suddenly jerked up and he was staring with narrowed eyes at something behind Naruto. Naruto frowned and discreetly tapped the wooden awning beneath his feet. There, he felt it, the thing that must have caught Ero-Sennin's attention. There was a presence, muted and hidden and faintly familiar, scurrying away quickly.

"Hey, Shizune," Jiraiya barked suddenly. "You're going to tell me about what you guys discussed with Orochimaru, and you're going to tell me right now."

Shizune looked surprised for a moment, like she hadn't expected him to know or something, then her head dropped in shame. "I've kept quiet about it until now," she whispered, "because I wanted to believe in Tsunade-sama…but…" she held her hands to her stomach as though she were touching a tender wound. She leapt to her feet. "We're short on time. Please follow me. I'll explain on the way!"

And as they took to the rooftops and leapt through whatever trees stood in their path, she explained. She explained about how Orochimaru had approached her and Tsunade looking for a way to heal his arms, and how Orochimaru offered to resurrect Tsunade's lover, Dan, and her little brother, Nawaki, in exchange.

"Of course she's going to say 'no'!" Naruto declared. He thought it was obvious. Who would trust a scumbag like Orochimaru?

"And once his arms are cured," Shizune finished, "he plans to renew his attack on the village!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Naruto said fiercely. The growl in the back of his mind voiced Hyôrinmaru's agreement.

"We need to stop him now," Jiraiya said, "or things may take a turn for the worst."

When Shizune led them to the site where the deal was to take place, they alleyway was demolished and several parts of the ancient stone wall were missing. There were craters littered about the ground, and as Shizune kneeled to pick up the green haori Tsunade had worn when last Naruto saw her, Jiraiya voiced the obvious: "It seems Tsunade-hime declined the deal. Looks like she went pretty wild here."

Naruto glanced askance at the trail of destruction that had been left in Tsunade's wake. "I guess we just follow the breadcrumbs, then."

And they were off again, following the craters and broken boulders that had been left behind and dashing as fast as they could. It was not long before they saw three figures in the distance, getting closer and closer each second, two of which were fighting and the third of which was standing to watch. Besides Tsunade's newly familiar presence and Orochimaru's oily purple aura, the third presence was familiar, too. It was the same as the one that had fled from near the apartment only that morning.

And there was Tsunade, and someone was shouting something as he came upon her with a kunai, and it didn't look like she would react fast enough. Jiraiya reacted first, and something small and black left his hand and exploded into smoke between the two combatants. With one final leap and a quick burst of speed, Naruto, Shizune, and Jiraiya landed in front of Tsunade just as the cloud of smoke began to clear.

"Jiraiya?" Tsunade whispered.

"It's been a long time, Jiraiya," the figure who had been observing the fight said. He had long black hair, pasty white skin, and snake-like yellow eyes. Orochimaru.

"Oho. Your eyes are as evil-looking as always," Jiraiya retorted.

Naruto turned his eyes to the man who'd been attacking Tsunade and a ripple of shock shuddered down his spine. This was the third presence, and now he knew why it was familiar. "Kabuto-san?" he asked. His heart gave a nervous thud. He had a bad feeling about this.

Kabuto smirked. "Naruto-kun," he returned silkily.

"I see," Jiraiya said heartily. Naruto thought his attitude was wholly inappropriate to the situation. "So you two know each other."

"We took the Chûnin Exams together," Naruto said hollowly.

"Move!" Tsunade pushed them both out of the way and leapt at Kabuto, who dodged her as best he could as she pushed him back and back and back. She kicked the kunai out of his hand and it lodged itself into a boulder. "Just because you can control your body now doesn't mean you can move normally!"

She backed him into a boulder — "You're not getting away now!" — but it was the worst possible boulder she could have because Kabuto pulled free that kunai that had been lodged there and slashed it forwards — into his own hand. Blood splattered over Tsunade's face and chest and she suddenly stopped and started backing away. She was shaking and staring at her bloody hands with the most terrified expression on her face.

"My body's finally started moving normally," Kabuto said with a smirk. He sheathed his kunai. "Dealing with two of the Legendary Sannin would be too much trouble. So I'll immobilize one for now!"

He punched her and she didn't do anything to stop him, just flew backwards and fell limply into Shizune's arms. She had gone from one of the Legendary Sannin to a helpless, motionless rag doll. Naruto couldn't believe it. A little blood and she turned useless.

But why was this happening in the first place?

"Kabuto-san," Naruto began lowly, "why are you fighting Tsunade-baachan?"

"My, my, Naruto-kun," Kabuto drawled silkily, "you're so slow. This is why you can't compare to Sasuke-kun."

Naruto's hands curled into fists. So it was true, then. He hadn't wanted to believe it, but the proof was staring him in the face. The sound note carved into Kabuto's hitai-ate was as much an advertisement of his allegiances as anyone should need. But he hadn't wanted to believe that the kind person who had helped him during the Exams could possibly have anything to do with the man who had killed the Sandaime Hokage.

"So you've been working with Orochimaru?" he growled. "How long?"

"So you finally figured it out," Kabuto chuckled darkly. "I've been Orochimaru's spy since the beginning, Naruto-kun. Since that moment during the first test of the Exams when I met you, and before even then. It really was convenient. Helping you guys out was an easy way of getting information."

He pushed his glasses up with a finger. "And what I discovered when I gathered data on you, Naruto-kun, is this: you have…absolutely no talent as a ninja."

Naruto's blood ran cold. Any fragile hope he'd had that it was all a joke, that Kabuto wasn't actually a spy, evaporated. A frigid anger pooled in his belly and spread steadily to his limbs. He reached up with deliberate slowness and freed Hyôrinmaru with a long, sharp, grinding ring. He pinned Kabuto with his darkest glare and unleashed all of his tightly held reiatsu. The people around him gave a short jerk, and Shizune took in a sharp gasp, but none of them had any trouble standing.

"Even if you make such a scary face at me, you're nothing more than an out of place Genin," Kabuto told him. "It's true that we expected something from that monster inside you, and you may have discovered something with that beautiful sword you have, something we ourselves would like very much to understand, but with the members of the Legendary Sannin in front of me, you're insignificant. You're like a tiny little bug right now, and if you interfere…I'll kill you."

There was a moment of tense silence.

"Ero-Sennin, Shizune-neechan, take Tsunade-baachan and keep as much distance as you can," Naruto said quietly. "If you stay too close…I can't guarantee I won't kill you by accident."

"We're not going to let you face these two alone," Jiraiya said firmly. "You're a Genin, Naruto. There's no way you can take both Kabuto, who's as strong as Kakashi, and Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, on at once."

"…Fine," Naruto shot back bitterly. "But don't blame me if you get hurt. And if you die, Ero-Sennin, I'll kill you."

"Heh," Naruto could practically hear the grin in Jiraiya's voice, "that's my line."

Kabuto leapt backwards to stand beside Orochimaru as Naruto swung his sword forward and intoned, "Bankai!"

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Kabuto's voice answered.

The wings, dragon's head, gauntlet, greaves, and tail of ice all formed in an instant as a humongous plume of smoke erupted where Kabuto and Orochimaru had stood, and as the smoke cleared, there were two giant snakes with mottled brown scales. They looked just like the one that had tried to make Naruto a snack in the Forest of Death. The sky above turned black and rumbled with distant thunder.

But Bankai wouldn't be enough. Naruto was not naïve enough to think it would be, not when he was going to take on Orochimaru. He'd had difficulty facing Gaara's transformed state with just his Bankai, and Orochimaru had been good enough to kill the Hokage. There was no way Bankai would be enough.

He had no time to do anything else, though, because the snakes threw themselves forwards at that moment and slammed headfirst into the ground. Naruto and the others leapt backwards and out of the way, and Naruto swiveled his wings around to guard against the chunks of dirt and stone that had been thrown up from the impact. He landed with a stop in midair, and he heard Jiraiya's voice cry: "Doton: Yomi Numa!" (Earth Release: Underworld Swamp)

The two snakes let out angry hisses as the ground beneath them suddenly became a dark swamp and they sank into it, but from their free heads and the parts of their long, thin bodies that remained above it, it was not a very deep swamp. It was probably that drug Tsunade had used, Naruto figured. Hadn't he said something about his chakra being out of whack?

But, high above the battlefield, Naruto had the time, now. He could work his technique without interference. He closed his eyes and reached deep within himself, pushing past all of the chakra and skimming the surface of his inner world. He ignored the violent red chakra that offered itself up and dug deeper and deeper until he found what he was looking for.

"_Once __more, __Naruto,__"_ Hyôrinmaru's familiar voice rumbled.

Naruto's Bankai evaporated like steam, and he felt a long, black glove form over his right arm and hand. A heavy necklace settled about him like a loose collar — _Magatama_, some strange, unfamiliar part of himself whispered. The wing did not appear, but he knew he could form it in an instant if he so wished. Again, the feeling of emptiness gnawed horribly as his stomach and heart, but he ignored it. He opened his eyes, and there were now two rings inside his irises that formed concentric circles around his pupils.

He breathed in, and felt a cool, calm anger. It was anger not from the transformation, but at Orochimaru, who had killed the Third, and Kabuto, who had betrayed him and his friends. It was a cold, steady rage that made his vision sharp and his mind clear.

He was furious.

He shot down like a bullet and slammed into the ground; the earth around him buckled and cracked like glass. It was reminiscent of that time above the stadium on the roof of the Hokage box, when the tiles and concrete had bent and shattered beneath the force of his landing. And, like then, he cared little for it. He had no reason to concern himself with it.

He stood straight, and _moved_, and then he was in front of Tsunade, who was weeping pitifully and begging for her torture to end, and stopped Kabuto from striking her again, grabbing Kabuto's clothed wrist with his bare left hand. A look of utter surprise crossed Kabuto's face, and it quickly morphed into agony as his purple glove burned to nothing beneath Naruto's fingers and his skin began to char. Kabuto pulled himself free and Naruto let him go. It was only prolonging the inevitable.

"Kabuto," Naruto said suddenly, "when did you stop gathering information about me?"

Kabuto looked up at him from his blistering skin with suspicious eyes. "After your fight with Hyuga Neji-kun during the Chuunin Exam Finals," he said. The smirk suddenly came back. "There was no need to watch you any longer. Any of the skills you showed during the match were easily explainable and unremarkable. After all, Jiraiya-sama, as one of the Sannin, was easily capable of teaching you enough to help you beat Neji. That didn't mean you were any more of a threat, just that you weren't completely hopeless."

"I see," Naruto lifted his bare hand and studied it a moment, flexing his fingers experimentally. Such a small difference between the Bankai version of Ryûjin no Torai and the Shikai version, but the increase in power was amazing. "Then you don't know anything about either this or my Bankai. Good."

Naruto was suddenly in front of Kabuto and backhanded him casually. Kabuto was sent flying backwards as though it had been Tsunade who had punched him and skidded to a halt several yards away. As he climbed shakily to his feet, Naruto could see a patch of blistery red skin on his cheek, and though he didn't know why contact burned others, he decided that it didn't matter. Whether it was something to do with Hyôrinmaru or something to do with the merge, it didn't matter.

Then Naruto was moving again and he could see Kabuto's eyes widen in slow motion as he carved a shallow gash across the older boy's back. It would not maim or kill or disable, but it would certainly hurt like hell. Naruto came to a stop and Kabuto was suddenly pitched forwards, screaming and clawing desperately at his back but unable to reach.

"It won't kill you," Naruto declared calmly. "But this might."

A single Kage Bunshin formed and hefted Kabuto up by his arms pits, locking its fingers together behind his head. Naruto stepped forward and stood in front of him, then looked over his shoulder at Tsunade, who was still trembling and watching everything with wide, frightened eyes.

"Hey, Baa-chan," Naruto called over. She met his gaze and he could not stop the grin that split his face. "Watch this real closely. I won our bet."

He turned back to Kabuto and formed a perfect Rasengan, then thrust it forward into Kabuto's belly and cried, "Rasengan!"

There was a moment when Kabuto was simply suspended there as Naruto's attack sunk into his gut, then he was suddenly thrown violently backwards, destroying Naruto's Kage Bunshin, and dug a long gouge into the ground as he went. A boulder finally stopped him a good ways away and caved in under the force of his collision. Kabuto fell to the ground, and no matter how hard he seemed to try, could not stand back up.

"D-damn it," Naruto heard him muttering to himself. "That attack…Even with my healing ability, I can't…"

Naruto looked away and frowned down at his hand. His fingers were twitching and jerking and his entire hand shook. It seemed he was beginning to feel the effects of Ryûjin no Torai. The increase in power he got from using it in Bankai must mean he also had less time. "Already?" he mumbled to himself. "Damn it. I need more time."

"Naruto, look out!" Tsunade's voice called.

He had no more time to muse on it as something whistled through the air like a bullet. He'd barely turned around before a blade shot forth and sunk into the soft flesh of his stomach. He grunted. Standing there with a snake protruding from his mouth and a sword protruding from the snake's mouth was Orochimaru, and his lips were formed into a smirk around the creature that had somehow (and Naruto didn't want to know how) come from his throat.

Whatever reaction Orochimaru was expecting, it probably wasn't what Naruto actually did. He grinned and laughed a little. It couldn't have gone better if he had planned it all himself. A giddy satisfaction bubbled in his belly.

"This is perfect," he said to the open air. Orochimaru's smirk fell. "You might as well have wrapped yourself up in a bow."

He grasped the sword with his left hand and held tightly, then dropped Hyôrinmaru (whose chain snapped out and wrapped around his waist of its own accord) and held out his black-gloved right hand. A swirling orb of blue chakra formed there in an instant and a look of understanding passed over Orochimaru's face. Naruto's grin widened to show all of his teeth.

"Rasengan!"

If he'd been a little taller, he would have aimed for the face, but the stomach was a good choice, too. Orochimaru was sent flying with an agonized and angry cry, and his sword slid from Naruto's grip and his belly, leaving behind two shallow cuts along his fingers and palm and a wound that, in retrospect, Naruto wasn't sure how to heal.

And then came the crippling pain, not only from the wound, but also because Naruto had run out of time. The tips of his left hand's fingers were burned and blackened, and it was slowly spreading up his hand, and his entire body suddenly ached. It took all of his strength to ignore the pain and push Hyôrinmaru out and away as he fell to his knees and groaned. The sword lying next to him had returned to normal, and all of the incredible power he'd had not moments before left him like sand in a sieve. He suddenly felt incredibly weak, and his body ached in ways that made Naruto wonder how Lee and Gai could stand to do their special brand of training.

The last remnants of his strength finally left him and he collapsed back onto the grass. His breath had left him and the new hole in his side throbbed and burned like lava. There was a single moment where he thought he might be dying, but he'd not had thought it for more than a few seconds before Tsunade was at his side, her hands glowing with green chakra, and pressing her fingers to the sluggishly bleeding wound in his belly. "Idiot," she was saying as the burning pain was soothed away, and he was sure he wasn't meant to hear her, "you keep getting yourself into so many stupid fights against people who could flatten you, Nawaki…"

"Hey, Baa-chan," he said with a grin; he purposefully ignored her calling him the wrong name. He lifted his shaking fingers to her necklace and caressed the beautiful green stone. "I won."

She smiled — actually smiled — and it was the first one he'd ever seen on her face. "Shut up and let me heal you," she told him, but it lacked any bite. It was said — dare he believe it — _fondly_, like an older sister talking to her younger brother.

"Guess you're over your fear of blood," he needled.

She stopped for the barest moment, and he wondered if perhaps he had gone just a little bit too far, but she pressed her hands back to his wound and the green glow returned.

"It's your fault," she groused good-naturedly. It felt almost surreal to see her acting so friendly when mere days before he'd hated her, and she him, with a boiling passion. "If you would just stop doing stupid things like picking a fight with one of the Sannin, I wouldn't even be here."

He just let out a breathy chuckle and relaxed as he felt the wound stitch itself back up like it hadn't even happened. Every second, he could feel it shrinking and shrinking under her attentions. A minute or two later, she'd finished with his stomach and had even undone the damage to his fingers. She must have been some sort of miracle worker, he figured. None of the doctors at Konoha's hospital were anywhere near as good.

"You damn brat!"

But they'd been working on borrowed time. Orochimaru came barreling down upon them again, sword bared and aimed for Naruto. Naruto reached out and grasped Hyôrinmaru — he had strength enough to at least parry the blow — but he needn't have bothered, because Tsunade stood firm in front of him and took the blow herself — right through the chest.

Orochimaru's eyes went wide. He took a step backwards and jerked his sword free, then swallowed it again. He frowned at her, "Tsunade, you were the only one I didn't intend to kill. That boy, however, will be troublesome if I let him live. Get out of my way."

It was said in a conversational tone, almost as though he were discussing the weather. Naruto wondered what kind of sick mind could talk about the cold-blooded murder of a kid (and he was, technically, still a kid, even if being a ninja meant he was considered an adult; he had no shame in admitting that).

"This boy…." Tsunade began lowly, "I will protect him no matter what."

"Covered in blood and trembling," Orochimaru smirked and chuckled. "Why would you, one of the Sannin, want to risk your life to protect a mere slip of a Genin?"

"To protect Konoha!" she bit back at him.

Naruto blinked — he was lost. How was protecting him the same as protecting Konoha?

The smirk fell. "To protect Konoha?"

"This kid," she looked back Naruto, who met her eyes incredulously, "will one day become Hokage."

A thrill shot through Naruto's belly. She believed in him. She really believed in him. And it was really such an incredible thing to have someone believe in you, to have someone who believed you could accomplish your dreams and who actually thought you were worth something. The warmth that bloomed in his chest was familiar — it was similar to that feeling Hinata evoked, that feeling of belonging.

Orochimaru chuckled again. "Such nonsense…Besides, the title of Hokage is nothing but shit. Only a fool would actually take on the job!"

Naruto could imagine her eyes narrowing as a familiar anger coiled in his belly. "Then I guess I'm a fool," she said solemnly, "because as the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, I won't allow you to kill this boy!"

Naruto, frozen to his spot, could only watch as the wound that had gone straight through Tsunade's chest closed up like it had never been there, and all her scrapes and bruises vanished. She stood up and squared her shoulders, and in the steadiness of her form, Naruto saw the same something in her that he had seen in the old man. She looked, for a moment, like the Sandaime had that day atop the stadium. She burned with the same fire.

"Now," Tsunade declared confidently, "let's get started. After today…there'll be one less person out there who can lay claim to the name of Legendary Sannin."

Orochimaru suddenly leapt over to Kabuto, who was slowly pulling himself to his feet, and Jiraiya, who had climbed out of the hole Orochimaru had apparently driven him into, began a set of hand seals as Kabuto and Tsunade started their own. Each gave also, Naruto just barely made out, a sacrifice of blood.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" three voices cried out simultaneously.

Three humongous plumes of smoke erupted over the field, and Naruto was suddenly sitting atop a giant blue and white slug at least a hundred feet off the ground. Jiraiya stood atop a great orange and red toad that was just as tall, and it was dressed in a blue hoari and white obi with a tanto tucked into its belt. It was smoking a long, brown pipe. Orochimaru and Kabuto stood on the crowned head of a great purple snake with a black underbelly.

These must be the bosses, he realized as he slowly and shakily got to his feet. He pulled chakra from the well in his stomach and fed it to his limbs — a temporary fix, sort of like a soldier pill, but a necessary one all the same.

"Katsuyu and Tsunade, and Orochimaru and Manda, it's been a while," the Toad Boss said calmly, puffing on his pipe. "What's going on, Jiraiya? Are you having some kind of reunion or something?"

"This is the first time in a long time I've called on you, Gamabunta," Jiraiya said sarcastically, "don't go saying such stupid things right now. Today is the day we end our long relationship with Orochimaru."

"You!" Manda flicked his long tongue at Gamabunta. "Maybe I should turn you into toad jerky!"

"Heh!" Gamabunta reached for his sword. "I've always wanted a snake-skin wallet!"

"This is quite the reunion," Katsuyu mumbled.

Manda didn't respond, instead looking up at the man standing on his head, "You owe me a hundred sacrifices for this, Orochimaru!"

"You'll get your sacrifices," Orochimaru hissed back, "just as soon as you — !"

Naruto tuned them out.

"Do I have enough?" he murmured lowly.

"_One __attack,__"_ Hyôrinmaru answered. _"__If __it __isn__'__t __decisive, __you__'__ll __have __lost __your __chance. __You__'__ll __have __to __rely __completely __on __whatever __chakra __you __have __left.__"_

Naruto nodded, then shot forward as fast as his legs would carry him and zipped past Tsunade. He heard her call his name, but he was already leaping off of Katsuyu's head and towards Manda, sword raised. Manda snarled at him and opened his mouth as far as he could, and it was obvious that he intended to eat Naruto.

He wouldn't get the chance.

Naruto swung downwards with Hyôrinmaru and unleashed every last drop of his remaining reiryoku into the wave that surged from the arc of his blade. "Kongô Hokori!" (Diamond Dust)

The wave swept down and consumed the entirety of Manda's head and a portion of his neck and drove the great snake to the ground with a loud slam. It poured over him like a mighty waterfall, pounding down and pushing him deeper into the ground. Grass and dirt were washed away or outright disintegrated, and everything nearby frosted over. When at last it subsided and Naruto landed, a number of scales had been stripped from Manda's nose and snout and great globs of blood sputtered out of his mouth with every breath. He was alive, yes, but definitely no longer in any condition to fight.

A little ways away, Orochimaru and Kabuto were picking themselves off the ground. Naruto could see a portion of white bone beneath the shredded skin of Kabuto's exposed arms and legs, then his flesh knitted itself back together with an incredible speed. Muscles, arteries, and skin reformed in a flash. Naruto wondered just how much damage he could take before he finally died.

Orochimaru was better off, though as he stood, Naruto could see a very female portion of his face that did not look like it belonged to him peeking out from the curtain of bloody black hair. A great deal of his clothes had been shredded and patches of beautiful feminine skin mottled his ragged body. He seemed to be on his last legs, and it was a miracle or some kind of divine intervention that he had not been killed yet.

Naruto wanted to know just what the hell those patches of skin were supposed to mean. Was Orochimaru really a woman in disguise?

"You stupid brat," Orochimaru wheezed. He began to sink into the ground. "You've won this battle…but in the end, I will be victorious! Because I…I am immortal! And I swear to you, I will _kill __you_!"

Then he was gone, and Kabuto offered only a smirk before he swept through a set of hand seals and vanished as well. Naruto, tense and prepared, waited for the attack that would strike either from his blind spot or underground, but as minutes passed and it never came, he let the adrenaline drain from his body and relaxed into the embrace of sleep.

The last thing he heard that day was Tsunade's voice calling his name.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

_**To be continued**_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach**

**Massive chapter today.**

**I wanted this out much sooner, but you guys have been so underwhelming. Those of you who reviewed, thanks. I appreciate it. But if I could get an average of at least 100 reviews per chapter, I think I could get a new chapter out every other week. If I could get an average of _200_ a chapter, I could damn near _guarantee_ a new chapter every other week (with the exception of extenuating circumstances and real-life interference — you guys have no idea just how much that many reviews could motivate me).**

**Currently, the next "chapter," which is already posted, is a calendar of the events so far. I've made some changes from the original timeline: first off, the Wave mission ends in the middle of May, and the Chunin Exams are held in June instead of July. This chapter starts at the beginning of July and ends on August 8th. Next chapter, the _real_ next chapter, will be a special one, and after that, the Land of Snow.**

**NaruHina fluff ahoy! (Even though they're not actually or officially a couple, just friends getting to know each other better — at this point, anyway. Yeah, they've kissed each other on the cheek once or twice, but until they're lip-locking or professing love, I don't consider them a couple. I'm building their relationship mostly using my own experience, so, yes, I had a relationship with a girl that was sort of like theirs, and she would later become my girlfriend — and even then, the falling-in-love part didn't come until quite a while after that).**

**Since I've explained Naruto's Fullbring and said in last chapter's A/N how he got a Fullbring in the first place you should also understand that it is entirely possible that others will manifest Fullbrings as well (just check for anyone born after Naruto, and it's entirely possible). That doesn't mean that those who _could_ manifest them actually _will__…_**

**I will admit that I worried a little about how you all would react to the dream at the beginning of this chapter. And the meaning of Itachi's words should give you some clue about what sort of power he lent to Naruto and what conditions will cause it to activate.**

**The quote below reveals a significant part of the Madara fight a long ways down the road. There are several things I could say that would make translating it easier, but I don't hand out anything. If you can figure out what the quote says, then you deserve to know the spoiler. If not, then you don't, and you'll just have to wait. (Incidentally, if those of you more fluent speakers manage to find any flaws with it, I blame it on the translator I had to use, courtesy of how rusty I've gotten and the fact that some of the words were not in my vocabulary).**

**One last thing: something you guys should factor into Naruto's growth rate is the fact that, in this story, Naruto is the reincarnation of the Rikudô Sennin. In this story, that is why he has Hyôrinmaru and why he can do a lot of the stuff he does. A lot of ninja consider the Sage a god, after all. Why is his learning curve so unbelievable then?**

_**Ore wa kisama no Sharingan wo watashijishin no seishin wo jitsugen suru tameni hitsuyou to shinai!  
><strong>__**俺は貴様の写輪眼 を私自身の精神を実現するため に必要としない**__**!**_

**James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes**

_James __Daniel __Godric __Alan __Fawkes_**(Signature ****best ****viewed ****in **_**Wendy **__**Medium **_**font ****style)**


	5. Rainbow Duet

— "_You stand upon the threshold, and what awaits you on the other side is both wonderful and terrifying."_

**Absolute Zero: The Azure Sky  
>By: <strong>James D. Fawkes

**Chapter Five: Rainbow Duet  
>— o.0.O.O.0.o — <strong>

When Naruto woke up, the room he found himself in was empty.

It was not the hotel room he had spent the previous night in, nor was it the familiar walls of his apartment. He sat up and looked around. They must have moved on, he figured. They had probably carried him to the next town over and were stopping only long enough to eat or something. Or, depending on what time it was (he had no idea, but judging from the light peeking through the curtains to his left, it was still daytime), Jiraiya was getting drunk and Tsunade was gambling.

Whatever they were doing, it kept them out of his room.

He made a single hand seal and two Kage Bunshin popped into existence as he reached for Hyôrinmaru and unsheathed him. The two Kage Bunshin got to work immediately — one rummaged through his bag and the other careful picked through Jiraiya's. One pulled out the scroll on the Uchiha Massacre and the other pulled out one of the numerous blank scrolls Jiraiya seemed to carry around everywhere. A moment later, they had started copying the Massacre scroll and were writing it down word for word in their best approximation of the Sandaime's hand writing.

Naruto took a cross-legged seat on his bed and laid Hyôrinmaru across his legs, then propped his hands up on his knees, closed his eyes, and focused.

The idea to inscribe something on Hyôrinmaru had first come to him the night before he had left with Jiraiya when he remembered what Kakashi had told him at the tournament. Kakashi had said that he was passing Hyôrinmaru off as an ancestral weapon from the Uzumaki clan. Surely, then, such an ancestral weapon would have something special inscribed upon the either the sheath or the blade, right? Naruto had run the idea by Hyôrinmaru and had gotten the go ahead. He'd never really had the chance to do it before (there had been so much other stuff going on), but now…

That was how he found himself sitting in Jinzen, as Hyôrinmaru had called it. It was the pose that was supposed to be used when one wanted to commune with their sword (Hyôrinmaru had almost said something else — "Zanpa" —before he'd caught himself). Naruto, of course, had never needed it to communicate with Hyôrinmaru, but Hyôrinmaru reminded him that Naruto had never intentionally visited his inner world. Jinzen, he'd explained, was designed for that purpose.

And so Naruto sat and focused. Time slipped by unnoticed — it could have been hours, it could have been minutes. The world around him vanished and the only thing that existed was the single thought that occupied his mind and the familiar icy coldness that sat at the center of his soul.

Then, so suddenly that he stumbled and nearly fell, he was standing knee-deep in lukewarm water. His eyes snapped open and he threw his arms out to steady himself against the wall. He was vaguely aware of the feel of rounded metal like that of pipes beneath his fingers as he looked up and around and found himself in near-total darkness. Candlelit lanterns flickered from the walls, and the only stable source of light was the red glow coming from down the hall.

Standing straight, he looked back into the inky blackness behind him, then forward again, wondered how exactly he'd gotten there and where exactly "there" was, and decided that the only way out was to go on. He let his arm fall back to his side, clenched his fists, squared his shoulders, schooled his expression, put one foot in front of the other, and made for the red glow.

The source of the glow turned out to be a giant room, easily at least twice as large as the stadium he'd fought in during the Chûnin Exam Finals, and came from both a vast network of what must have been pipes on the nearly-indiscernible ceiling and some mysterious…something behind the tall, thick bars that looked to split the room in half.

As he stepped closer, however, a large pair of malevolent red eyes snapped open behind the bars and he caught the gleam of two rows of sharp teeth being pulled into a grin — and if the teeth were any indication, then whatever was behind those bars could swallow at least a dozen ninja whole.

"**So**," a dark, deep voice said, "**my creator has become my jailor…how appropriately ironic**."

An ominous chill swept down Naruto's spine. He forced himself to ignore it.

"Where are we?" he demanded first.

"**We are in your soul,**" the voice said. "**This is the deepest darkest part of your being, where every little bit of malice and anger festers. Naturally, I'm quite at home.**"

It chuckled sardonically.

"Don't bullshit me!" Naruto shouted back. "This isn't my soul! Where's Hyôrinmaru? Where's the ice and snow and the trees blooming with white flowers? Where's the rumbling clouds and sky? Don't jerk me around! Tell me where we are!"

There was a dark, amused chuckle, the derisive kind that people laughed when they found it funny that you were being stupid because they knew something you didn't. Naruto was intimately familiar with it — Mizuki had laughed like that, and so had Kabuto and Orochimaru.

"**We are in your soul,**" the voice repeated. "**This is the deepest and darkest part of your being, and it lies beneath the snow and ice, hidden from those clouds and the sky. In this place, you are invisible to that frigid monstrosity upon whose power you call. You should already know that. My memory of the time **_**before**_** is a little hazy, but I do recall very faintly that it was you who banished us to the darkest part of your soul, just as it was you who split us apart. Have you forgotten that already, Creator?**"

Naruto frowned, but could not recall even faintly what the voice was talking about. He was pretty sure he would remember a voice like that, or banishing something to the "darkest part of his soul."

"What are you talking about?" he demanded. "Who are you?"

There was a moment of silence, then a great rustling sound as what he could only imagine were giant claws scraped loudly against the floor. The water sloshed around, and it sent gentle waves breaking upon Naruto's legs. The eyes and teeth moved, then settled again, and, a moment later, lanterns blazed to life around the room, and Naruto could see, just beyond the bars, the giant, hulking figure of a fox. Nine tails swished behind it lazily, and its massive snout rested upon a pair of surprisingly human-shaped forearms.

"Kyûbi," Naruto uttered numbly. Something in his belly twisted nastily.

"**Stop playing the fool,**" the voice said, and it rumbled out of the fox's mouth. "**You may change your form, Creator, you may change your face and your hair and your body, but your soul is intimately familiar to me. Did you think that simply disguising yourself thus would render you unrecognizable?**"

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled. "Stop talking about stupid things and make sense, would you! I've never met you before — well, except for the night you got sealed — but I've never talked to you before! And you should be glad I didn't, or else I would've torn you a new one for ruining my life, you bastard! It's your fault that Mom and Dad are dead! It's your fault that the villagers hate me! It's your fault that I grew up alone and miserable! Everything bad that's ever happened to me can be laid at your feet, and I'll never forgive you for that!"

There was a long moment of silence as Naruto panted and tried to gather his breath, and he glared as hard as he could at those evil red eyes. The fox shifted a little and peered at him with an expression that could only be described as curious.

"**Can it be? Is it possible…that you're not him? No, I see now. You're his reincarnation, aren't you? You don't have all the memories yet!**" it suddenly threw its head back and let out a loud, barking laugh, one that sent the whole room aquiver. "**Oh, how perfect! That wretched Yondaime sealed me into his own son and unknowingly into the reincarnated Sage! Oh, how the gods themselves must be laughing! The soul of the very man who created me now inhabits the body that imprisons me, and is none the wiser!**"

"What are you talking about?" Naruto demanded again. What did it take to get a straight answer? People wondered why he got so confused — they never got to the damn point. There was always some long winded or cryptic explanation that never actually got to the heart of the matter. And he was getting tired of it.

The Kyuubi snorted and refocused on him. "**Be gone for now, Little Sage,**" it said. "**Return here when you need power and remember who you are. Return here when you are who you were.**"

It blew warm, fetid breath at him, and he was suddenly falling, falling, falling, down into darkness, and it was all around him and he couldn't escape and he wouldn't stop falling…

Naruto opened eyes he hadn't been aware were closed. He was back in his hotel room. His Kage Bunshin were gone, and everything they had been using was back in its proper place. The original Massacre scroll was in Jiraiya's pack and the copy was in Naruto's. He let his arms drop from his knees and lifted Hyôrinmaru up to inspect the blade just above the hilt. Where before there had been only smooth steel, there were now words etched in exquisite detail.

"_Living amongst the Whirling Tides,"_ they said, _"Our glories never fade."_

And on the other side, _"O'er wind and water our clan presides, Our fortune as the Gods have bade."_

Everything seemed to have worked properly, but…

He couldn't shake the awful feeling squirming in his belly.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

"To be honest with you," Tsunade said from behind her new desk, "I'm not really sure what to do about this. Since the exam was disturbed, some people think that nobody should pass."

Naruto stood before her with an uncharacteristic calm, but was fidgeting and bouncing on the inside. Next to him was Shikamaru, and behind Tsunade were Anko, Shizune, Ibiki, Genma, and Jiraiya. He wasn't exactly sure why he was standing there, but if the direction of her words was any indication, then he could probably take a good guess.

The Chûnin Exams.

It had only been a scant few hours ago, just after dawn, when they'd arrived back in the village. They'd been greeted with minimal fanfare — the only ones to see them return had been a pair of half-asleep Chûnin, Kotetsu and Izumo, who had both just started their shift a few minutes before. Naruto had immediately set off for home while Tsunade and Shizune went to establish themselves in the Hokage Tower and Jiraiya went off somewhere, probably to peek.

He had just barely gotten unpacked when he'd been summoned to see the Hokage, so, grumbling all the while, he followed his escort (some guy with a bunch of scars on his nose and cheeks, looked like burns) to the very office in which he now stood.

"It seems, however, that someone did," Tsunade went on. She lifted a brush, dipped it in a pad of ink, and began to write on the scroll in front of her. "I heard that the late Sandaime Hokage held the two of you in high regard, and even the other Chûnin have made comments about your skills. The spectators, feudal lords, and the examiners all agreed, as well. That means that it's not really my problem, so I don't have to worry too much."

She finished writing with a flourish and looked up at them, smirking, "From this day forward, your actions will be looked upon with greater scrutiny, and your skills and decisions will reflect upon our village, so make sure to make us all proud! Congratulations! You two are now Chûnin!"

Tsunade rolled up her scroll and handed it to Ibiki, who took it with a nod. She folded her hands in front of her face. "With the formalities out of the way, you can pick up your vests at the supply office a few floors down. Officially, you don't have to wear them. As a general rule, shinobi and kunoichi are allowed to wear whatever uniform suits their fancy. The only time you'll be expected to actually wear your vests will be during diplomatic ceremonies or similarly themed missions, so keep that in mind. Any questions?"

Both Naruto and Shikamaru shook their heads.

"Dismissed!"

Shikamaru turned and left, but a voice stopped Naruto.

"And Naruto?" Tsunade said quietly. He looked at her and she smiled. "Congratulations, brat."

He grinned. A newly familiar warmth bloomed in his chest — how good it felt to have someone to say that to him. Of course, he already had Iruka, but Iruka was often very busy, and his schedule often conflicted with Naruto's, so they rarely got to see each other except when Iruka was handing out missions.

And now he had Hinata and Jiraiya and Tsunade, and how wonderful it was to hear them praise him. Was this what it was like to have a family, he wondered.

"Thanks, Baa-chan."

Tsunade chuckled and shook her head, then waved him away casually. Naruto turned to follow Shikamaru out the door, but a sudden hand on his shoulder stopped him, and when he turned to look, a serious-faced Jiraiya was standing over him. His mouth was set into a thin line, his brow was furrowed, and his eyes were flinty and glinted like sharpened steel. It was a little jarring — Jiraiya only ever looked that serious when he was in the middle of battle.

"Listen, Naruto," he said lowly, "could we go someplace and…talk?"

Naruto glanced over at Tsunade, who was speaking in quiet tones to Ibiki and Genma, the proctor from the Finals. He never had heard what happened to that Hayate guy. He looked back at Jiraiya, "Sure."

Jiraiya gave his shoulder a squeeze, and that was the only warning Naruto had before something jerked on his navel and the entire world blurred into a swirl of reds and blues and greens and browns. For a second that lasted an eternity, he was weightless and frozen in his spot, and then the ground slammed into his feet and left his toes and heels tingling with pins and needles. He breathed in, and the spell that had held him in place was broken.

"Whoa," he whispered. He was standing back at the waterfall where he had trained for his match against Neji.

"Never seen someone react like that to Shunshin," Jiraiya mumbled with a chuckle.

Then his hand left Naruto's shoulder and everything turned serious again. Jiraiya's lips thinned back into a line and he lifted his arms and crossed them over his chest. Already the tallest person Naruto knew, he looked taller and more intimidating than ever before, and the dramatic flailing of his long hair in the sudden breeze completed the picture of the most powerful ninja in the entire village.

For the first time, Naruto realized what it meant to be one of the Sannin. How in the _hell_ had he managed to come away from_ three_ confrontations with Orochimaru relatively unscathed?

"I found the most curious thing in my backpack on the way back from picking up Tsunade," Jiraiya said seriously. "It was this scroll that I know for a fact I didn't have when we left, and the only one of our group who had both the method and the means to slip it into my stuff is you, Naruto. Of course, the letter the old man left for me helped a little — really quite ingenious to hide a sealing array in the text of the report, I almost didn't catch it. Which means you couldn't have known, either."

Naruto swallowed thickly. This was it. The moment of truth.

"You — You read it?" Naruto asked quietly.

"The entire thing," Jiraiya replied stoically. "I considered the idea that it was all fabricated, but even the best of ninja would need a Sharingan or the mind of a Nara to fake sensei's handwriting that effectively, and only someone like Danzou is clever enough to hide a seal inside the text of a scroll. But Danzou would never admit to something as shady as setting up the massacre of an entire clan, so he couldn't have forged the scroll and the letter that that scroll contained. That means that it really was sensei who wrote all that."

Naruto swallowed thickly again. He hadn't even considered the idea that the scrolls, the letter, and all the information they contained might be fakes, but it was good to have Jiraiya confirm that they were all the genuine article.

"But the fact that you ask that means that you must have read it, too, right?" Jiraiya went on. Naruto nodded. He could not force his voice to work, not over the sudden shame that speared through his gut. He felt like a child who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Sensei mentioned that you might. He also said that he hoped you wouldn't, but that he couldn't — or wouldn't, I suppose, since he technically could have used any number of security measures — stop you. He listed his reasons for having you deliver the scroll, and I must say that they were quite clever — Danzou would never have thought the old man would risk such dangerous village secrets by having a Genin as their courier."

"Yeah," Naruto said lamely.

"He also said that he left a letter for you that told you who your parents were," Jiraiya continued neutrally. "And a Fûinjutsu scroll from your father — Minato really was brilliant, so you'd better take that seriously, got it?"

"I know," Naruto said firmly. He looked away. "He…he also gave me a photo of them. Of Mom and Dad."

Jiraiya's gaze softened for a fraction of a second, then it was serious again.

"I'm going to assume that the letter that I was supposed to deliver to Itachi was already delivered, since it wasn't with the scroll when I got it, so there's one more issue that bothers me," he declared. "Sensei mentions that one of the reasons he thought you could handle delivering the scroll to me was because Kakashi thought you were mature enough to inherit an heirloom from your mother — that sword on your back. The thing is, Kushina came here with nothing more than the clothes on her back, and she never had the chance to head back to Whirlpool to salvage whatever was left. Sensei didn't know her well enough to know that, though, and neither did most of the guys currently on the council, so Kakashi's ruse worked out pretty well — until I got wind of it."

Naruto's blood ran cold. His hands clenched into fists and his palms were sweaty. Fight or flight instincts were sputtering to life in the back of his brain. He wanted nothing more than for the earth to open up and swallow him.

"So if that sword's not an heirloom from the Uzumaki clan," Jiraiya said lowly, "then what is it? Naruto?"

Naruto opened his mouth to speak, closed it, opened it again, then closed it again. Nothing came out.

"You have indeed earned all of the fancy titles attached to your name, Jiraiya of the Sannin," a deep voice said suddenly. Naruto jumped and Jiraiya's eyes went wide. There, standing next to Naruto with his back straight and tall, was Hyôrinmaru in all his draconic glory, and he was as solid as the earth beneath his claws and the trees in the distance.

"What're you doing?" Naruto hissed.

"Who are you?" Jiraiya barked demandingly.

"I am Hyôrinmaru," Hyôrinmaru declared simply. _"Jiraiya must know," _his voice resounded inside Naruto's head. _"There are things at work here currently beyond your understanding, and Jiraiya's help will be invaluable."_

"Hyôrinmaru, like the sword on Naruto's back," Jiraiya mumbled. Fierce eyes turned to Hyôrinmaru. "No, the better question is 'What are you?"

"What do you think I am?" Hyôrinmaru asked.

"A sword capable of the things I saw, this Shikai and Bankai stuff, and the energy it let off — which merged with Naruto's own natural chakra when he used that Sage Mode rip off," Jiraiya mumbled, more to himself it seemed than anyone else. "One also capable of something at least resembling sentience and self-awareness — something like that…" he looked straight at Hyôrinmaru again. "The only thing I can think of that could ever be capable of some of the things I've seen Naruto do with that sword would be one of the Mist's Seven Swords or one of the Rikudô Sennin's treasured tools, but all of those are accounted for, as far as I know…"

"Um, Ero-Sennin?" Naruto began. "What're these 'treasured tools' things?" Because this Rikudô Sennin guy sounded really important and anything owned by someone that important had to be completely awesome.

"No, you are correct," Hyôrinmaru said. Naruto's question was ignored. "Once, many centuries ago, I was held and wielded by the man you call the Sage of Six Paths. By your words, I may surmise that the Bashôsen, Benhisago, Kohaku no Jôhei, Kôkinjô, and Shichiseiken have all been found and are in the hands of one power or another. I am his most famous tool, sought after by every swordsman ever to wield a blade. I am Totsuka no Tsurugi."

Jiraiya frowned and shook his head, "The Totsuka was lost ages ago, and is said to have the ability to seal away anything it pierces —"

"The legends have long embellished my form and ability," Hyôrinmaru interrupted. "I cannot seal away anything, much less whatever I pierce. My purpose has always been combat, and my powers have always reflected that purpose — I control all the moisture in the air. So long as there is water to be drawn from the land or sea or sky, my powers cannot be stopped or broken."

"Even so," Jiraiya argued, "no ordinary sword, not even something as powerful as the legendary Totsuka, has a mind of its own! The only thing even similar is Enma, of the Monkey Summoning contract, who can turn into a staff! What you're proposing is impossible! And even if it's true — _especially_ if it's true — that kind of power in the hands of a Genin — hell, in the hands of a _Chûnin_ — is ridiculous! There's no way someone of Naruto's level should have access to that kind of power!"

An indignant anger surged up in Naruto's belly; if Jiraiya thought he was going to take Hyôrinmaru away, he had another thing coming, and he was going to make sure Jiraiya understood that — but Hyôrinmaru beat him to it.

"But the Rasengan, an A-ranked technique whose full power can turn a person's innards into mush, is perfectly acceptable?" Hyôrinmaru challenged dangerously. "But that is beside the point. Even if you wanted to, you could not take me from Naruto. I am not like the Nine-tails. Even if you seal me away, you cannot hold me if Naruto calls upon my power, and you cannot stop him from calling upon it. I am not like a summoning contract — even if you apply a contract seal, you cannot sever the bond between Naruto and I. There is a reason so many men have spent their lives searching for me and died unfulfilled. I am bound to the _soul_, Jiraiya of the Sannin, as I always have been and always will be. I am a part of him, not a separate entity. I serve one master, now and forever, even if I may withhold the farthest reaches of my power until he is ready to wield it properly."

Something seemed to click in Jiraiya's brain, and he kept glancing back and forth between Naruto and Hyôrinmaru. There were several long moments of silence, and Naruto could see the pieces fitting together in Jiraiya's head, though what those pieces formed or what conclusion Jiraiya was drawing, he did not know.

"Wait a moment," Jiraiya said finally. "You're a part of him? And you serve only him? And Rikudô Sennin was your master, ages and ages ago? Then that would mean…Naruto, he's…"

"He is," Hyôrinmaru said solemnly, "though he doesn't know, just yet. I would like to keep it that way, until I think he's ready."

In Naruto's head, Hyôrinmaru's sentence extended to, _"which may be sooner than you think."_

Jiraiya's jaw snapped shut with an audible click. Then he grinned. "Heh," he chuckled mirthlessly. "Something like this…if it got out, there'd be a lot of trouble. People all over would be scrambling to kill him, recruit him, or steal from him. Yeah, I guess I can keep this secret. But yeah, wow. I thought Nagato…"

"I assure you," Hyôrinmaru said. "I am not mistaken."

"No, I know," Jiraiya replied. He glanced at Naruto. "I knew this kid would be something when I started training him, but I never expected…Hmph, I guess it'll be pretty interesting, won't it? Orochimaru thinks Naruto's a failure. Can't wait to see the look on his face when he finds out."

"Indeed."

Naruto had a feeling that something really important had happened, but he had no idea what it was. All this talk about legendary swords and treasured tools and sages — his head was swimming just thinking about it. It was important because it all involved him somehow, but that's all he knew for sure.

Well, at least he'd made Chûnin.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto should have expected that not everything would go his way. In fact, things had been going so well, he really should have known that something would happen to ruin his general good mood. Hadn't it always been a sort of pattern that way? Things would go his way for a while, then everything would sour. Wasn't that how his life had always been?

"This way, Uzumaki-san," his guide said quietly.

Hyôrinmaru had awakened inside of him, he beat Kiba, saved Hinata's life, matched up with Neji in the finals, got trained by Jiraiya, who really knew his stuff, even if he was a pervert, then he beat Neji in front of a crowd of people and proved his worth. That was a whole month of good things happening, at least generally, anyway. And what happens to spoil all of those good, happy things? There's an invasion, he has to fight Gaara, and Sandaime was killed.

Then good things started happening again: he spent time with Hinata, got closer to her, went with Jiraiya to recruit the Godaime Hokage, learned an A-Rank Jutsu, made a new friend in Tsunade, landed an awesome blow against both that traitor Kabuto _and_ Orochimaru and lived to tell about it, and then he got promoted to Chûnin. That's another string of really good stuff. So he really should have expected to wake up three days after he got home to find a stiff-backed Hyuga standing at his door with his shoulders squared and his mouth pulled into a serious line.

And it had all been going so well, too.

"Na, Hyûga-san, you never did say what I'm doing here," Naruto stuffed his hands in his pockets. The Hyûga compound was _huge_, he mused idly as they turned right down a hallway. "I think I'm entitled to know, you know. You took me away from my ramen for this."

"I already informed you, Uzumaki-san," his guide said, and it was a testament, Naruto thought, to the Hyûga Clan's training and general disposition that only the slightest bit of exasperation bled through his tone. "Hiashi-sama wishes to speak with you."

Naruto groaned. "But that's so _vague_!" he whined. "That could be about _any_thing! He could want to congratulate me for beating Neji — which would be so totally awesome, by the way — or he might want to ask me how I eat ramen so often and maintain such a lean, ninja-esqe figure. Or maybe he wants to ask me to ask Baa-chan for a favor. Or he might want to ask _me_ for a favor! Ha! Now wouldn't _that_ be so totally awesome."

"Yes, Uzumaki-san," his guide said blandly. They took a left down another hallway. "That would be _so totally awesome_."

Naruto was silent for a moment. His guide led him down another left hand turn. He had no idea how the Hyûga navigated this place — all the walls looked the same to him. He'd probably get lost the first day if he'd had to live here himself.

"I'm not feeling the love, here," he said quietly. He stared squinty-eyed at the back of the Hyûga's head. "That sounded like sarcasm."

His guide groaned, then stood ramrod straight and suddenly declared, "We're here!"

Naruto blinked and looked in front of him. They were standing in front of a pair of large oak double doors fashioned with gold-colored knobs and finished with a mirror shine. "Huh," he said lamely, "I guess we are."

His guide breathed a sigh of relief through his nostrils and twisted one of the knobs, then opened one of the doors. He leaned in, bowed his head, and spoke quietly.

"Hiashi-sama," he said, "I've brought Uzumaki-san."

"I see," a calm, smooth baritone rumbled from inside. "Very well. Show him in."

Naruto's guide bowed his head again and opened the door the rest of the way, then gestured for him to enter. Naruto frowned and strode past him and into a lavish room that was bare but for the ridiculously stylized table at the center and the two high-quality royal-purple cushions set out on either side of it (they were trimmed in gold filigree). Atop one of those cushions, seated calmly in seiza, was an imposing man with a strong brow, sharp eyes, and black hair longer even than Neji's. His forehead was clear and uncovered, and he was dressed in expensive cream-colored robes.

"Come in, Uzumaki-san," the man said as he gestured to the empty cushion. "Please, take a seat. You are my guest here."

Naruto carefully schooled his expression into a blank mask — it was easy when he remembered what Hinata had told him of this man, her father, who had constantly told her she was a failure — and sat down cross-legged on the other cushion (because seiza was way too damn uncomfortable). He lifted his sash and Hyôrinmaru over his head and set them both down beside him. Hiashi's eyes followed the motion closely.

There was a moment of silence. Hiashi reached down and gracefully picked up one of the mugs of steaming tea settled on the table, then took a short, stoic sip and closed his eyes briefly as though to savor the taste. Naruto, figuring the other must be for him, picked up the second mug and took a sip from it. It was high grade black tea with sugar and lemon, the kind imported from Earth Country — expensive and rare. It was Naruto's favorite tea because it was spicy with a hint of citrus and very, very sweet.

That Hiashi knew it was his favorite — at least enough to have it prepared for him — was worrying and kind of creepy.

It took all of his concentration to keep his face neutral.

"I understand that you have an acquaintance with my daughter," Hiashi began smoothly. He set his cup down. Naruto did the same.

"Yeah," he said, "she's my best friend."

"Indeed," came the reply. "You and she have been seen together on several occasions and you visited her in the hospital every day. I am aware that you and Hinata have become…_close_."

Naruto frowned and crossed his arms. "I'm not hearing a question."

"I have not asked one," Hiashi responded coolly. He lifted sly, half-lidded eyes to meet Naruto's. "I have been informed that you intend to accompany Hinata to the Tanabata Festival this year, yes?"

"Figured it'd do her some good," Naruto said defiantly. "She needs to get away from all this formality and tradition and the pressure of all the crap you guys put her through. She needs to learn how to have fun, and that having fun isn't a crime."

"I'll thank you not to tell me how to raise my own daughter," Hiashi said softly. There was an edge to his words that hinted of danger, that reminded of a knife concealed in velvet. Naruto didn't care.

"If you could call it 'raising'," Naruto sneered. There was an indignant anger sputtering to life in his belly and a spur of adrenaline rushing through his veins. "Tradition's fine and all, but the Uchiha clan was all about tradition, too. And look what happened to _them_."

He was bluffing, but if it _worked_…

"If you can't be a _family_ **as well as** a clan, then things are gonna go sour eventually. All those traditions, like marking the Cadet branch with a _Juinjutsu_ of all things — and I might only be a novice at sealing, but even _I_ understand what those are — and expecting everyone to have the same skillset, then _punishing them_ and _scorning them_ when they don't — all of that's gonna add up, and someday, someone's gonna get tired of it and just decide, hey, the clan's gotta go —"

"Are you threatening me?" Hiashi demanded abruptly. His eyes were narrowed and the innermost veins were beginning to bulge.

Naruto's shrug was a lot more casual than he felt, "I'm just making an observation."

The veins receded, and Hiashi took in a deep, deep breath. Naruto imagined the anger seeping out of him like a black mist and forced his own heart back to its normal pace. That was incredibly stupid, he berated himself. He was talking to the strongest Hyûga in the entire clan. This guy could probably kill him six different ways before he could even _think_ of reaching for Hyôrinmaru.

"I'm going to overlook what you just said to me," Hiashi told him calmly. "You are, after all, entitled to your opinions, and it would be incredibly foolish of me to lash out at you for voicing them. Moreover, that is not the issue I wished to discuss with you today. My interest is more in your sword."

Naruto glanced at Hyôrinmaru out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Hatake-san informed us — that is, the Clan Heads who sit upon the Council — that it was a clan heirloom, and most were satisfied with that explanation," Hiashi explained. "Most, however, do not have the Byakugan, and could not, therefore, see that this weapon has its own source of energy that is nearly independent of your own. Furthermore, if this Hyôrinmaru is an heirloom passed down from the Uzumaki clan, why, then, does Hinata have one as well?"

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. His jaw snapped shut with an audible click. He could think of no explanation, and he really didn't like where the conversation seemed to be going.

"The only answer that makes sense is that it isn't," Hiashi continued. "That is fine. I'm not particularly interested in the nature of your sword or how you came about it — there are other legendary weapons out there, after all, including the varied swords carried by the Hidden Mist's Shinobigatana Shichinin Shuu and the artifacts said to have been used by the Rikudô Sennin. What concerns me is the fact that Hinata appears to have one as well, and I wish to know how exactly I am to separate it from her."

Hiashi straightened his back. "It is unbecoming of a Hyûga to rely on a weapon, after all. No matter whether it is a legendary weapon or not, Hinata should not be wielding a sword. The Hyûga have always been experts at Taijutsu, and so shall we remain."

It had to have been a joke.

Naruto grinned and let out a laugh. He couldn't stop himself. The idea was too absurd to not at least chuckle at.

"You're an idiot!" he said between cackles. "That's the only explanation for how stupid you are! Because the only other thing that makes sense is that you're joking!"

A creasing of the brow and a downturn of the lips — a frown. Somehow, Hiashi made it seem like the darkest of scowls.

"I assure you, Naruto-san," he said stoically. "I am quite serious."

"All right," Naruto could not completely wipe the grin from his face; Hiashi already knew more than Naruto would have liked, so Naruto would have to explain everything in order to prevent some…_misunderstandings_, but the idea that you could separate a part of your own _soul_ was, in a morbid sort of way, funny (gallows' humor, Jiraiya had once called it), "since you've already figured this much out, I should probably tell you what's happening before you try something stupid and get either yourself or Hinata-chan hurt."

He picked up Hyôrinmaru by his sheath and brandished him in front of Hiashi. Hiashi's eyes were glued to his sword like a pair of particularly stubborn noodles stuck together.

"This is Hyôrinmaru," he explained. "He's a sword, as you can see, but he's not just a sword. Hyôrinmaru is a part of my soul. He manifests as a sword in the real world, but in the place he inhabits in my soul, he's a dragon. He has complete control over ice, snow, and water. When I unlock the first tier of his powers, called Shikai, he can even control the weather. Scary, huh?"

He was careful not to mention Bankai, nor Hyôrinmaru's exact limits. In order to protect Hinata, he would risk it all by revealing Hyôrinmaru's secret nature, but if it ever came to blows, he wanted to have enough of an edge that he could still surprise Hiashi if he had to. He was not fool enough to believe that he could beat and/or kill Hiashi in a straight up fight, not without having one or two aces up his sleeves.

Hiashi leaned forward and inspected the hilt and scabbard with shrewd, narrowed eyes.

"And what would happen if I were to destroy the blade?" he asked cautiously.

Naruto noted the use of 'I' in Hiashi's sentence — it was not some curious academic interest like 'what if the sky was green'; Hiashi wanted to know the consequences before he acted.

A sense of unease grew in Naruto's belly.

"What happens if it's broken or melted or otherwise ruined?"

Hyôrinmaru whispered the answer in Naruto's ear — it hadn't ever been an issue for him before. At least now, though, he knew, just in case it ever did happen.

"Depends," Naruto said uneasily. "If the blade's broken in half or melted away or whatever, then it'll simply regenerate from the hilt. If the entire thing's lost or destroyed, then it'll reform on its own. Hyôrinmaru doesn't exist in a physical realm — it's like the seal on my stomach. If you make a cut across the seal markings, it doesn't actually alter the seal or damage whatever it contains. Same thing with Hyôrinmaru: if you destroy the sword, it doesn't mean you're destroying Hyôrinmaru."

That scroll Sandaime had given him about sealing was definitely coming in handy.

"Then…Hinata's 'Tobiume'?" Hiashi asked.

"Tobiume's a part of her soul," Naruto told him. He fidgeted a little. He did not like this conversation _at all._ "You can't get rid of it or destroy it just by throwing the sword itself into a fire or tossing it into a volcano. It's a part of her, and it takes on the form it chooses, and it knows her better than you or I could ever hope to. And you can't seal it away, either. It'll just come back. It's not physical, it's not made from energy, it's a part of her _soul_. You'd have better luck trying to seal her left arm into her right arm without doing any damage."

Hiashi snorted derisively.

"So I am to just accept that my daughter will never be a proper Hyûga?" he retorted sardonically. Naruto thought that there were a lot worse things in life than not being a proper Hyûga. "Forgive me if that is a bit difficult to swallow."

The unease festered into indignant anger; it took all his control not to lash out. Naruto shrugged a lot more casually than he felt and stood, slipping his sash and Hyôrinmaru over his head fluidly. His tea sat there, unfinished and cold. He had no intention of carrying the conversation further — if it continued along the same vein, he was liable to lose his temper. "It's up to you whether you deal with it appropriately or not."

He turned to leave and rested his hand on the doorknob. Hiashi didn't protest, so he twisted it and opened the door and was just about to walk away when he thought of what might happen. Images of Hinata flew through his brain — covered in bruises and sobbing as he held her and told her that she would be okay, even though her eyes were closed and she was blind; her forehead branded with the same seal as Neji; her sitting in the corner, curled up on herself and shivering and unresponsive and _death was a kinder fate than that_; her lying in her room, cold and dead and with her eyes wide open, staring unseeing into nothingness…

His blood ran cold. The festering indignant anger froze and the entire world condensed into that single moment as he imagined what might become of Hinata. He wouldn't allow it. He wouldn't. He needed to make it clear just how stupid it would be for the Hyûga clan to try and remove Tobiume from Hinata (or to punish her for having it).

"Hiashi," he said lowly. He cast one frigid blue eye over his shoulder and only passingly wondered just how intimidating a twelve-year-old could be to a full grown man. "If you guys do anything to Hinata that can't be undone, if you spill one drop of her blood…I'll personally slaughter each and every one of you pompous Hyûga. What Itachi did to the Uchiha? It'll look like a picnic."

There was a long, tense moment of silence. The plans were already forming in Naruto's head — the oldest ones would have to go first, then the rest of the adults, and the only ones who wouldn't feel Hyôrinmaru's steel would be the children too young to be Genin. He didn't relish the idea — killing senselessly never sat well by him, even if he understood that it was necessary — but even he could be pushed too far, and, he was quickly finding out, Hinata was one of those buttons you just didn't push.

"Is that a threat?" Hiashi demanded dangerously.

"No," Naruto declared. He gathered up all of the reiryoku he could and unleashed the full force of his reiatsu. He was pleased to see the look of surprise dawn on Hiashi's face. "It's a _promise of a lifetime_."

The door closing behind him was loud enough that he could have slammed it and it would have made little difference. He stopped, tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and let out a long, weary sigh. Inhale, exhale. He could feel the anger sapping from him as the breath slipped out past his lips, and he was left standing there, hollow and tired — it couldn't have been later than noon.

His guide, the Hyûga who had led him through the compound earlier, was nowhere to be seen, so Naruto took the first left and decided he'd either puzzle his way out or find someone who could show him the way.

He'd not traveled thirty feet before he turned the corner and came face to face with Neji.

"Naruto-san," Neji said calmly. He did not look surprised. He reached down and grabbed Naruto's wrist and Naruto had the sneaking suspicion that Neji had actually been looking for him. "Come with me."

He spun around and started walking and Naruto was forced to follow as he was led through the compound once more. Neji was insistent and seemed to ignore him as Naruto walked briskly to keep up with his forceful new guide — really, could Hyûgas not take "no" for an answer?

Left, right, left, left, right, left, right, right — he lost track of what turns they took where and thought that it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. How often would he have to navigate his way through the Hyûga clan's compound, especially with Hiashi's office as his starting point?

Finally, they reached a door and Neji slid it open and — sunlight, beautiful sunlight — pulled him outside into a sprawling garden with neatly trimmed trees and flowers and perfectly cut grass. He led Naruto down a cobblestone path and finally came to a halt in front of a pond where a pair of koi fish — one black, one white — swam circles around each other.

Neji let him go. The moment his wrist was free, Naruto pulled it to his chest and rubbed it tenderly where Neji's fingers had been wrapped so tightly he'd nearly lost feeling. "What's this all about, Neji?"

Neji frowned, looked down a little, and fidgeted nervously, then suddenly fell to his knees and pressed his forehead to the ground. Naruto felt his mouth drop open. A ripple of shock shot through his belly.

"Please forgive me," Neji said into the dirt. "I belittled you unnecessarily, spat on your hopes and dreams, and did a great many things of which I am now ashamed. So I ask you: please forgive me for what I did."

Naruto's mouth snapped shut. He frowned and crossed his arms. "It isn't me you should be apologizing to," he said as sternly as he could.

There was a slow moment of pause, then Neji lifted his head and sat back on his haunches. His eyes were cast downward in shame. "I know," he said solemnly, "and I have already apologized to Hinata-sama. She told me that there was nothing to forgive."

Naruto nodded, satisfied. If Hinata forgave him, then Naruto could, too.

"Then we're cool," he said.

"Cool?" Neji asked curiously.

Naruto grinned. "Frosty."

Neji bowed his head again. "Thank you."

"It's no big deal," Naruto waved it off. And it really wasn't. There was no point in holding a grudge against someone who genuinely regretted their actions, especially if they apologized and atoned. Besides, he had already kicked Neji's ass. Humiliating the rookie of the year in front of nearly the entire village was punishment enough. "Now, ah…do you think you could show me the way out?"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The morning of the Tanabata Festival dawned bright and warm and beautiful and Naruto, contrary to his usual habits, did not spend it training. Instead, he slept in until ten o'clock, had a late brunch, and spent most of the day studying the Fûinjutsu scroll his father had left to him. He had already finished the first tier, which covered everything from the very basics of Fûinjutsu to sealing an ordinary item inside a scroll, and was reading through the second tier, which detailed more complex storage seals, such as fire or water, and the effects different mediums, like ink and blood, had on the sealing process.

Around four o'clock, he rolled up the scroll and hid it beneath the loose floorboard under his bed, then got a long, hot shower, brushed his teeth, toweled his hair dry, and did whatever else he thought he needed to do to get ready for the festival. When he had done just about everything he could think of, he reached into his wardrobe, stood on the tips of his toes, and pulled down the folded kimono sitting on the shelf at the very top.

The kimono Naruto had picked out for the Tanabata Festival was not especially fancy or expensive, but he felt that it suited him and that it would be enough for what he intended to use it for. Sakura probably would have disagreed — an orange kimono, she would have said, had no business at such an important event.

But Naruto liked it well enough. It was mainly orange, so that was a huge plus, and it was a deep, dark blue at the shoulders and along the collar. Strips of red and gold formed into a long, sweeping bird design across the back and right side — a phoenix, the teller had called it. He would have liked something with a dragon on it, but the only ones that had one were all dark, dreary colors, like black and blue, and he didn't want to look like a walking bruise. That was Sasuke's job.

A golden silk sash tied it all closed, and as he looked in the mirror, he thought that it looked pretty good. Granted, he felt like he was wearing a dress because you weren't supposed to wear hakama for Tanabata, but the overall look was a lot better than he might have thought.

With his formal wear on, he reached down and picked up Hyôrinmaru, which he had set against the wall while he dressed. He looked at the black sheath for a moment, fisted the smooth cotton of the orange sash, then set his sword down on his bed. This would be the first time since the Forest of Death where he would consciously make the decision to leave Hyôrinmaru behind.

The warmth that suddenly bloomed in his chest reminded him that even if the sword was here at home, Hyôrinmaru was a part of him. Hyôrinmaru was always with him.

He took one last glance at the mirror, then left his bedroom and headed for the front door. He slipped on the specially bought pair of straw sandals that he'd gotten specifically for that day, then twisted the doorknob, opened the door, and closed it behind himself. It clicked shut.

Naruto lifted his head and looked around, first left, then right, and shuddered, then squared his shoulders and made his way towards the stairs. He felt naked, then and there, without Hyôrinmaru slung over his shoulder. A sword, however, would not go over well at a formal festival. Even in a ninja village, there were limits.

The walk to the Hyûga compound was a long one, made longer by the fact that he had to mind his step because his kimono was more restrictive than his usual clothes, and he did not fancy showing his underwear off if he tried to go too fast. Nonetheless, it was an incredible relief when the compound gates came into sight, even though the stiff-backed guards gave him only a short, contemptuous glance until he was right in front of them.

"We have been expecting you, Uzumaki-san," one of them said before he could even open his mouth.

"She will be out in a moment," the other declared.

There was only a long, tense silence after that, and the five-minute wait seemed like an eternity. Then the gate opened inwards, and Hinata stood beyond it, dressed in a white kimono that looked as though it must have cost a fortune. The collar was plum-colored and it was tied closed by a large, golden-yellow sash. Hung about her shoulders was a length of pale purple silk whose ends reached her knees, and patterned along the hem of her sleeves was a series of purplish circles that he imagined were supposed to be plums.

Naruto had no problem admitting that she looked rather stunning, especially for a twelve year old girl.

He grinned and offered her his arm. "Shall we go?" he asked.

She smiled and took it with a nod. A faint dusting of pink colored her cheeks, and as her warm body pressed up against his, shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip, he felt his own face blush.

They walked in a sort of companionable silence. Neither, it seemed, knew exactly what to say, and Naruto thought that they were both in very unfamiliar territory — Hinata had probably never gone to such an event informally, and Naruto had never gone to such an event period.

They didn't speak again until they came upon the beginnings of the festivities, where a large yellow banner declared "Tanabata Night" in bright red ink. Beyond it was a large, milling crowd and a series of stalls selling things like food (squid-on-a-stick, udon, teriyaki dishes, even okonomiyaki), his-and-her masks with stars and other such things on the front, knick knacks and doodads, pinwheels, and all sorts of other items. Streamers hung from everywhere, and red paper lanterns, normally reserved for the Red Light District, were strung up and lit. Everyone was dressed in a semi-formal kimono, and everyone was talking and chatting excitedly.

"A-amazing," Hinata whispered breathlessly.

"Yep. Guess Baa-chan went all out for this thing," Naruto grinned. He gave her arm a tug. "Come on, let's go."

The first thing they did was visit the mask stall. Naruto picked out a stoic white fox mask, the only one of its kind, with thick red whiskers and marks above the eyeholes. He thought it looked remarkably like something the ANBU would wear, he explained to Hinata, who had herself chosen a more human looking mask with stars patterned just beneath the right eye and purple lips. When she put it on to see what he thought, Naruto wisely kept to himself just how creepy it was to see her pale, pupil-less lavender eyes staring out at him from behind the mask's cool, calm face.

After slipping the masks into their belts, they wandered off aimlessly and wound up at a stall that was selling themed accessories, Tanabata or otherwise, and Naruto, after glancing shortly at Hinata, bought one of the most expensive ceremonial combs on display. As they walked away, Hinata stuttered her thanks and Naruto tried to fit it into her hair. Unfortunately, Hinata's hair was a little too short, and after trying just about everything he could think of, he gave up with a disappointed huff.

"S-sorry," Hinata mumbled. Her face was flushed and miserable-looking.

Naruto frowned, then reached over and pulled the left side of her bangs back. He affixed the comb, a brilliant golden thing with a beautiful phoenix design engraved on the body, just above her ear as snugly as he could, then let his arms drop. It stayed.

"That'll do for now," he said. "But if you grow your hair out, then it should be fine next year."

Hinata flushed. "N-next year?" she asked quietly. The thinly disguised hope in her voice sparked a surge of joy in Naruto's chest.

"Of course," he promised with a huge grin. "We're friends, right? Why wouldn't I go with you every year?"

She smiled. "Thank you, Naruto-kun," she said.

They moved on after that, slowly making their way through the large crowd until Naruto's stomach loudly voiced its opinion of their next destination. Naruto flushed, laughed, and scratched sheepishly at the back of his head. Hinata smiled. Then, out of nowhere, Hinata's stomach let out a much quieter growl, and she ducked her head as her cheeks turned bright red and the tips of her ears became pink. Naruto's barking laugh got him strange looks from the others in the crowd, but he ignored it and led Hinata over to Ichiraku's, which was having a special just for the festival: five bowls of ramen for the price of one and a free bowl of udon for couples.

"Hello, Naruto," Teuchi grinned broadly, "and you, too, Hinata-san. What'll it be for my favorite customers?"

"Pork for me," Naruto declared.

"U-um, Miso, please."

"How many tonight, Naruto-kun?" Ayame called over from the pot she was stirring.

"I'll take four," Naruto told her.

"Coming right up," Teuchi declared brightly.

A few moments later, two steaming bowls of ramen were set down in front of them — a pork for Naruto and a miso for Hinata — and they both murmured a quick "Itadakimasu" before they broke their chopsticks apart and dug in. Naruto, as he always did when eating with Hinata, made sure to eat much slower and savor every bite.

"My goodness! Naruto, Hinata, is that you?"

Ino suddenly burst into stall and threw herself onto the counter, leaning over so she could get a better look at them. Naruto lifted his head and blinked, vaguely aware of the large stream of noodles hanging from his lips. Hinata had dropped her chopsticks and nearly left her seat, she's jumped so high. She must have been really surprised, Naruto mused. He slurped his noodles, chewed them quickly, and swallowed. Ino looked vaguely disgusted.

"Oi, Ino," Naruto said. "What're you doing here?"

She had on a kimono the color of sunshine decorated with purple flowers and a violet sash. Tucked into her broad belt was a folded paper fan, and her hair, which had had nearly two months to grow out since when she'd cut it during the Chûnin Exam Preliminaries, was done up into a fancy bun. A light dusting of purple shone from the upper lids of her eyes.

"Well, I _was_ enjoying the festival," Ino said. "Then I saw you two and decided to come over and say hello. So, are you two enjoying your date?"

Hinata's whole arm twitched violently and crashed into her bowl, sending it careening over the side of the counter. It was only Naruto's quick reflexes that allowed him to reach out and snatch the bowl before it could make the rest of its trip to the ground. Plus, he thought thankfully, it gave him a moment to wipe the blush of his face before he sat back up and placed Hinata's bowl back where it belonged.

"I-Ino-san!" Hinata gasped. Her face was scarlet.

"I-it's not like that," Naruto said. He silently cursed the slight waver in his voice. "We're just friends, and as Hinata-chan's friend, I'm going with her to the Tanabata festival. Alright?"

"Whatever you say," Ino retorted flippantly. "Anyway, you look really pretty tonight, Hinata, and Naruto, that orange looks surprisingly good on you. Now, I'll see you guys later. I'm going to go and find Sakura."

She stood and turned to leave, then gave a quick wave — "Bye!" — and disappeared into the crowd.

"She's like a tidal wave," Naruto murmured after her. "Here and gone, but what a mess she leaves behind."

"Yeah," Hinata, Ayame, and Teuchi said simultaneously.

They spent the rest of the meal in silence. Neither Naruto nor Hinata could stand to even look at each other without erupting into a violent blush, and Naruto was thankful that Teuchi and Ayame were nice enough not to push the subject — he thought he'd die from embarrassment if they decided to tease him and Hinata about what Ino had said.

"Have a nice evening!" Teuchi called as they got up and made to leave.

"Thank you," they muttered, then left.

After that, they didn't talk too much. They mostly just wandered around and visited a random stall or two. Ino's words hung around them like a dark cloud and rendered them almost unable to speak coherently to one another as it slowly got darker and darker out, until, that is, someone mentioned that there were going to be fireworks soon.

That gave Naruto an idea.

"Come on, Hinata-chan," he said suddenly. He grabbed her hand and started steering her through the crowd. "Follow me!"

He led her through the throng of bodies, pushing his way through here and there and ignoring the indignant cries that followed after him. A few minutes later, they burst out of the crowd into an open alleyway, and as soon as Naruto looked around to make sure no one was watching, he pulled them both into Shunpô.

A few seconds later, he jerked to a stop on top of the Hokage Monument, and Hinata took in a long, quiet gasp behind him. He let her hand go and turned around, gesturing broadly to the land behind him. He grinned.

"Welcome to the Hokage Monument," he said grandiosely. "When it comes to views, it doesn't get much better than this. From here, the fireworks will be _amazing_."

"Naruto-kun," she whispered. Her eyes were wide. "This is…"

Just then, a single firework shot into the sky and exploded into a bright pink flower. The roaring approval of the crowd in the streets below was deafening. Naruto grinned again and grabbed her hand.

"Come on," he said as he dragged her over to a spot of bare earth. "It's already starting."

He sat down and pulled her down next to him just as the next firework soared upwards and exploded into green, and Hinata gasped next to him as the crowd gave another answering cheer.

They stayed like that through the entire show, watching in silence as firework after firework exploded in front of them and showered them in red and green and blue and purple lights. Somewhere during all of that, they'd begun holding hands, and when it was all over and there was nothing left in the sky but faint smoke trails and the bright full moon, Naruto found he didn't want to move. He didn't want to let go of the warm, soft hand entwined with his own. He didn't want that moment to end.

"I wish every day could be like this," Naruto said suddenly. "No fighting, no conflict — just people being carefree and happy."

"Naruto-kun," Hinata mumbled somberly. He felt her squeeze his hand. "I-I wish so, too. N-no worries, no problems, j-just us and the sky."

Naruto smiled. He liked that idea. "Us and the sky."

Just the two of them, together and alone, underneath the sun and moon and the vast sea of stars. Just the two of them, carefree and happy. The thought brought a wonderful warmth to his chest.

"There you are!" Both Naruto and Hinata jumped and were immediately on their feet. Their hands fell separate and they turned to look behind them. Standing a ways away, apparently have just come up the beaten path, stood Ino, and a panting Sakura was behind her.

"I-Ino-san?" Hinata asked faintly.

"We've been looking everywhere!" Ino declared. She marched up to Hinata, grabbed her hand, and started to lead her away. "Come on, it's almost time to put up our wishes! We've got to go!"

"B-but," Hinata began weakly.

"No 'buts'!" Ino declared. "And Naruto," she called over her shoulder, "this is a ladies' thing, so you stay out! Don't worry about Hinata! Sakura and I will take her home, okay? Bye!"

"Good night, Naruto-kun," Hinata mumbled resignedly.

And just like that, Naruto was alone. He sighed, scratched the back of his head, then shrugged and turned back around to stare up at the moon. Even if it hadn't gone exactly the way he'd planned, it had been a good night, he decided. He and Hinata had had fun, and that was what mattered. So he hadn't gotten to do everything that he'd wanted to — who cared? He and Hinata had enjoyed their time together. He wouldn't change a thing.

He wouldn't change a thing.

"A youngster like you shouldn't be up here alone, especially when the festival is about to end," a voice said suddenly. Naruto's head turned so fast that he could swear his neck had cracked. There, standing next to him, just outside of his peripheral vision, was a crippled old man with a bandaged right eye and no right arm. He hobbled on an old, gnarled wooden cane that looked as though he had carved it from a tree himself.

"I was watching the fireworks with a friend of mine," Naruto said. "She got dragged off by a couple of other girls, so I figured I'd just…watch for a little while, you know?"

"Mm," the old man agreed. "There is something calming about looking up at the moon, but it's also rather humbling, don't you think? It reminds you just how small you are in the grand scheme of things. In the end, you're just an insignificant speck on a giant ball of mud."

"Never thought of it that way," Naruto admitted, because he really hadn't. The old man hummed again.

"Most ninja do not," the cripple admitted. "Ninja tend to be rather arrogant, you know. They wield the power of the elements as though they were the Sage of Six Paths themselves, so confident that nothing can touch them, so confident that their way is the best way, and bowing only to the whims of their Kage. Too often they forget what it really means to be a ninja, to abandon their humanity for the sake of something greater and that they are all but a small cog in a very large machine.

"But I've gotten ahead of myself," he said. "You are Uzumaki Naruto-kun, yes?"

Naruto nodded.

"Ah, I see," he said. "And your teammate — it's Uchiha Sasuke-kun, am I right?" Naruto nodded again. "I see, I see. Very tragic young man, isn't he? Lost his entire family in one night. Very, very sad, don't you think? I wonder what he must see when he looks up at the moon. I wonder if he realizes just how small he is, just how small his family was."

Naruto said nothing, but when the silence stretched on, it appeared that the old man was waiting for an answer, so he decided to be honest without revealing what he knew — the best lies, he had long ago learned, carried an element of truth.

"It depends," he said. "I mean, sometimes a clan can be related, but not be family, you know?" He thought very distinctly of Hiashi. "I guess it really all depends on whether or not Sasuke's clan was his family, or just a bunch of people all sharing the same surname."

"Very true, very true," the old man nodded. "But even so, there must have been _someone_ in the clan he cared for — someone he loved, hm?"

Naruto hesitated, then plowed on. "He was always talking about his brother, Itachi," Naruto revealed. "It was always 'Itachi this' or 'Itachi that' — you'd think he worshipped the ground his brother walked on. I mean, I didn't know him all that well back then, but if you just sat and listened for a while, Itachi was all he talked about."

"But Itachi is the one who killed the clan," the old man mused. "Sometimes I wonder, though. Itachi was an incredible ninja — even the best of his age group, you might say — but the other Uchiha were nothing to sneeze at. Granted, not all of them were ninja, but there were quite a few who were powerful in their own right — the Itachis of their generation, you could say. So how — how did Itachi manage to kill them all in a single night while the rest of us were none the wiser?"

He thumped his cane on the ground.

"It's suspicious, is what it is," the old man declared. "That kind of thing would have raised so many alarms, but no one came to the Uchiha's rescue. There must have been a conspiracy. Someone must've wanted the Uchiha dead, someone with a lot of power. Right?"

Naruto felt the fingers of his left hand curl into a fist and he swallowed carefully before answering.

"I wouldn't know," he said. "I was just a kid when all that happened."

"I suppose so," the old man admitted. "Hmph. Forgive an old man his rambling, Naruto-kun. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I must be off."

He straightened and turned to hobble away. His cane clunked loudly with every step. Naruto let out an inaudible sigh.

"Oh, I never did introduce myself, did I?" the old man asked suddenly. The clunking stopped. "I'm Danzou. Shimura Danzou. It was nice talking with you, Naruto-kun. Have a pleasant night."

And then he hobbled away, but Naruto was still not alone. Thoughts were whizzing through his head like super balls, and they never stayed still long enough for him to make any sense of them. They haunted him like ghosts, and he felt as though the entirety of the Uchiha clan was hissing and spitting at him from the afterlife, because the one thing that hung about him, pressing on his mind like the grip of a boa constrictor, was a single, terrifying realization.

He had just had a conversation with Danzou, the man who had ordered the Uchiha clan's massacre.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto descended back to the streets a time later when the crowd below began to thin. He was actually just going to go straight home, because he had a lot of things to think about, but as he made his way down the streets, one of the venders called out to him and beckoned him over.

"I haven't seen you around here yet," the vender said, "so you mustn't have written up your wish, right? Here — pick out a piece of paper, write your wish on it, hang it up on the wall, and it'll get put on the tree tonight at midnight."

He gestured down at the almost-empty countertop, where a single brush and inkwell sat waiting. Hanging from the top of the stall was a series of paper strips in all the colors of the rainbow, and on the wall behind the vender hung the wishes of the entirety of Konoha — or at least the portion that had visited this particular stall.

Naruto picked out a strip of orange paper — "Orange!" some part of him cackled gleefully — dipped the brush into the inkwell brought it to hover over the paper, then stopped. He had no idea what he wanted to wish for.

Well, what did he want to wish for? He asked himself that question as seriously as he could. What did he want? Well, what did he want aside from becoming Hokage and earning recognition and protecting the village and stopping all the hatred and bigotry and everything that plagued the world as he knew it — and that's when he knew what he wanted to wish for.

He wrote it quickly and dramatically and signed his name with flourish.

_I want to change the world!_

The vender smiled and gestured to the wall behind him. Naruto stepped around the stall and behind it and looked for a place on the wall to hang his wish. His eyes roved over the various wishes already hanging there and skipped over most of them (Sakura and Ino both wanted a date with Sasuke, go figure, and Chouji wanted a lifetime pass to all of his favorite restaurants, who would've thought, and Sasuke, funnily enough, was wishing for a basket of freshly-harvested tomatoes), but one in particular caught his eye and he smiled as he hung his wish next to the one signed _Hyûga Hinata_.

"Have a nice night," he told the vender as he left.

"You too!" the vender called after him.

That night, he fell into a blissful, dreamless sleep without any trouble. The memory of what Hinata had wished for banished all of the dark thoughts Danzou's talk had brought to the surface and he fell asleep with the image of her purple strip of paper in his mind.

_I want Naruto-kun to be happy._

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

**Omake: **_For Reviews, the Fourth Wall Comes Tumbling Down_

"He's really disappointed," Naruto said.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow. "Why? What's there to be disappointed about?"

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Well, duh," he said. "Think about it, Sasuke. Even if the legacy stats page tells him that sixty-eight thousand people have visited the story in total, that doesn't account for how many people have read each chapter more than once, or how many people have started reading, decided they didn't like it, and quit, or how many people actually enjoyed reading it."

"So?" Sasuke asked.

"So he promised that he could get out a chapter every other week if he got two-hundred reviews a chapter," Sakura chimed in. "Think about that, Sasuke. Each chapter is about fifteen-thousand words — that's fifteen thousand words twice a month. Some people have difficulty getting out five thousand words a month."

"Oh," Sasuke said lamely. "I guess reviews are really important, then?"

"That's a huge understatement," Kakashi told him. "A good review is worth fifty, even if it's as simple as 'Good job' or 'I really liked this chapter'. Two-hundred of those is worth ten-thousand, and a really good really long review is worth nearly two-hundred — that's four times the standard 'Good job'. Can you imagine how much that motivates him? He can get out these massive chapters in two weeks in between all of the other things he's doing with his time, including classes and assignments and everything else life throws at him. That's difficult, but if he's given two-hundred reviews per chapter — at least on average, anyway, the exact number of reviews to any given chapter isn't particularly important, just as long as it's an average of two hundred a chapter — then he can manage to rewrite these chapters almost from scratch and post a new one every other week."

"That's…actually pretty impressive," Sasuke commented. "Yeah, I can see why reviews are important. Why aren't more people reviewing?"

"If only I knew," Kakashi said. He smiled, but there was something very scary about his expression, even hidden as it was behind his mask. "If I did, I'm sure I could find some way to…motivate them."

"A good chapter every other week should be motivation enough," Naruto said sourly. "I mean, there's so much more depth to this story than there was in 'Sit Upon the Frozen Heavens.' The back story is much more thought out and the plot is a lot deeper — all this effort he's put into making this an epic tale, and then all of these guys go and make him feel worthless and underappreciated. The nerve! Why, if it was me, I'd — !"

"We know, Naruto," Sakura said calmly. "Besides, I'm sure there's some sort of explanation."

Sasuke snorted. "Don't make excuses for them, Sakura," Sasuke said. "It's their lives, they can make their own choices. If they don't like the story enough to contribute, then that's their problem."

"Maa, Sasuke, that's surprisingly mature of you," Kakashi said.

"Don't get me wrong," Sasuke shot back. "If it were up to me…But it's not. He's tried to be polite and ask nicely. It's not my fault that it doesn't work. Common human decency was hard to find long before we came around, and he can't really compete with that 'Methods of Rationality' thing over in the Potter section, no matter how much he wishes he could. It's just the way things are. No sense wasting time wishing things were different."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

_**To be continued**_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach**

**When Chapter Six goes up, that last bit with Team Seven will be edited out. And, over the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours, I will be doing some editing of the text of this chapter so as to fix a few mistakes or add a bit more content or make things flow a bit more smoothly. That said, it'll be much easier if you guys tell me what feels forced or rough so that I can correct it more easily.**

**Ooh, mysterious! Kyubi knows something and he's not telling! But then, you've all already guessed exactly what it is, haven't you? I mean, I beat you over the head with all the clues I dropped. Remember, though, that Naruto doesn't have sufficient knowledge of the plot to understand what all those clues lead to, but all of you do. You might have already come to a conclusion based on those clues, but Naruto is still scratching his head.**

**And I give my congratulations to those who realized just how insulting it was for Naruto to sit in agura while Hiashi was sitting in seiza. The only reason he got away with it without being told off is because Hiashi wanted something from him.**

**And my version of Hiashi is something like Ikari Gendo; he's not exactly the best father, but it's more because he's been caught up in clan politics for so long that he doesn't care the way he should anymore. In his own strange way, he does care for Hinata; his concern with her being a proper Hyûga is as much about protecting her as it is her meeting his expectations.**

**I agonized over the confrontation with Jiraiya, because I revealed a piece of the plot that should probably be coming out later and I was afraid I'd gone just a little bit too far with the Totsuka bit, but I can't really imagine a way of cluing Jiraiya in about Hyôrinmaru without adding it. Just keep in mind that any preconceptions about the Totsuka sword, Hyôrinmaru and not the one used by Itachi's Susano'o, are likely false. In fact, you could stake money on it.**

**This marks the first chapter where Naruto starts to have actual romantic thoughts about Hinata, even though he hasn't realized it yet.**

**More Absolute Zero stuff can be found here: acornerofabsolutezero(dot)blogspot(dot)com  
>Warning: there <em>are<em> spoilers on that site. **

_**There is no going back. The only way out is forward.**_

**James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes  
><strong>_James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes_**(Signature best viewed in **_**Wendy Medium**_** font style)**


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